The Unknown Island
by Punk19
Summary: A group of humans find themselves involved in a war between their kind and Gungans on an island they have never known of, what will happen and does their leader know more than what she is saying she does about the island and the people that live on it?
1. Chapter 1

Riding into the camp was one thing that she could deal with, the eyes though she could barely take. They were staring, cold and angry, at her, the staring made a cold shiver run down her spine and made her want to turn back, her horse underneath her was twitching and nervous. Swallowing a little too hard, she turned her eyes to the people to her left and right. Not only were the people staring at her coldly, they're expressions were of pure hatred. Before she had entered the forest with the being behind her she had been told by her injured leader that she might encounter some hostilities but she hadn't thought it would be this much.

"Why are they staring at us so angrily?" a man slightly behind her asked.

She didn't need to know who had spoken, the voice belonged to her former Earth Science teacher, Vinny Ferriolla. Peeling herself from the people to her left and right, she turned around slightly and looked at the man. Normally at this time in the year he would have dyed his hair yellow but as of right now it was black. He was Italian, medium height with a lankish body. When her horse swished her tail back, it caught against her face and forced her attention back to the front.

"You wouldn't look at someone who is attacking, raping, kidnapping and killing your people?" Wendy asked.

There was a pause behind her then she heard a 'uh uh' afterwards Vinny stayed quite. Glancing behind her, she saw the tall, orange being beside him. He was an interesting fellow, only a year older than she was. The fellow had orange skin with milky yellow undertone, his eyes, orange in color, sat on stalks on a long face with a bill, behind his head hung some long fin-like appendages that he had called when he was questioned about them haillu.

"You doin' alright Jar Jar?" she asked.

"Yes, I's doin' okey day". the creature replied.

Her group had encountered the creature one day when they had moored the boat off on a tree, he had just ran up yelling for help in clean english. The group, led at the time by her leader, had opened fire and had killed three men and had captured one other. The creature had jumped onto their boat when they had started firing and had hid himself behind the ladder that descended to cockpit. Her leader had been shot once, not a bad wound but it had hurt her some, after the one male had been brought on board and questioned they had searched for the being. She remembered well that it had been her that had found him, cowarding behind the ladder.

"You know you can speak english right," she said. "you don't have to speak in that gibberish."

"I knows," the creature said. "I knows."

She hadn't spent much time around the guy, she had heard that he had been banished by his people and that since the hunters had started attcking his people the leader of his people had allowed the banished a chance at return for a while, he had mentioned that he hadn't taken up the opportunity to go back to his people because he was afraid of a guy by the name of Boss Nass.

"Boss Nass..." she spoke to herself in a low whisper. She had to get use to saying the name, she had to remember it. Her injured leader had briefed her on the guy, she had been told that he was a stern, stubborn at times, no-nonsense, enforcer of his peoples rules and laws. Her leader had told her that the man had been an army Sargeant in his youth, then when he had retired he had been an engineer, energy miner and currently, along with him ruling of his people, the owner of several small businesses. She had been told to keep her head on her shoulders because, as her leader had said, he would attempt to intimidate her by yelling and making ticking and other sounds. Although she was afraid, she was trying to put on a good front, for her leader and the small group behind her.

"How much farther Abi?" Vinny asked.

"Not much farther." she replied.

Abi, short for Abigail, was not her name and although she hated being called it she had to muster up the courage and patience to be referred as it. Her leader had changed her name to Abigail Sloccum as soon as the creature had boarded their craft, for whatever reason she was sure it was a good one. Sitting up straighter, she nudged her horse on a little faster to catch up to the animal a head of her that was carrying a mount. Her horse nickered once then trudged on, she pulled her up and smoothed her hand over the horses neck. Her mount was a dapple gray mare, about six years old, with a creamy mane and tail.

"Slowin' up yousa mount!" the guy in front of her barked.

She had a hard time not obeying him, she was very nervous now and her mount was picking up on it. Her horse was getting sweaty and was blowing from her nose fast. She eased the mare up some, allowing the animal in front three feet of space, her horse was making the animal in front nervous she could tell. The animal was slick with sweat and wasn't walking a straight line. The man riding the animal turned himself around in his saddle and stared at her sternly. She pulled the reins up and gave the animal in front of her seven feet instead of the three.

"Blew your cover girl," she thought to herself. "how in the world did Angel think I could be like her? I can barely speak my mind to my parents how can I keep my cool in front of these creatures?"

"Are we almost there?" Vinny asked.

The question went unanswered because at the time the creature in front stopped his mount, forcing her and her group to stop behind him.

"Ya Honor," he said. "Abeegale Slow Ccum of da hisen."

At first she thought he was talking to the big tree in front that had three creatures standing in front of with sharp ended poles then she saw him. A large creature stepped out from the side of the tree, there was a stone face of white color that he was standing on, behind him was two other creatures near the size of him. The creature looked tall and was wearing a brown robe with an intricate design on the front and on the edges, he had a hat on his head.

"Whosa dis?" the creature bellowed.

She felt a chill run down her spine, she could tell this wasn't going to be good. The tone of his voice, much too booming, much too stern, it just made her want to turn around and run away and forget about talking to the guy. Hearing a sound behind her she turned around to see Jar Jar dismounting. She started to say something when the man with the booming, stern, voice spoke above her.

"Jar Jar Binks!"

She nearly jumped out of her saddle, he had been loud, too loud, scary loud. Jar Jar had stopped in his tracks after dismounting, the reins had fallen to the saddle horn and was causing the horse some problems. Vinny moved his mount slowly up to Jar Jar's mount and removed the reins from the horn, he ground tethered the horse. Jar Jar had a look of pure nervousness and fear on his face, she could have swore that she had seen him shiver a few times. Swallowing, she turned around and looked at the large creature in front of her, clearing her throat, she prepared herself to speak.

"We brought him back," she said shakingly. "we brought him back to safety, to his people."

"Jar Jar Binks, yousa big doo-doo now!" the creature bellowed. "Yousa brought da hisens to da sacred place!"

Jar Jar was cowarding, he was pulling himself down to the ground slightly, he was scared and so was she. Swallowing hard, she figured it was time to speak her peace. Quickly getting herself together, she dismounted and stepped forward, placing herself in front of Jar Jar.

"We mean you know harm." she said. "we're just here to bring Jar Jar back, we intend to leave as soon as he is in safety."

"Yousa hissen more trouble den yousa tinkin'," the creature bellowed. "yousa all bombad!"

The people all around her had their hands either clinched in tight balls or had them ready to be clinched, there was pure anger in their eyes and she could tell that all they needed was a simple go a head from the creature standing on the stone face for them to run forward and attack. Sighing loudly, she took the rifle that was hanging on her saddle in a case and threw it to the ground. Her group all gasped, although she wasn't their real leader she knew they had been briefed to do exactly as she said or did.

"Throw your weapons to the group." she ordered.

There was silence behind her so she turned herself around in her saddle and looked at her group, she tried to be stern. She repeated what she had said to the group, they stayed silent for a few seconds then Vinny and Peter, another male in her small group, threw their guns to the group, the other two males in her group were slower in complying.

"Steven, George," she barked. "discard your weapons!"

Steven threw his weapon to the ground, George though was not very fast in doing so. He sat on his horse motionless for a few secodns then threw down his Blaser R8 Professional, it landed on Steven's Modern Hunting Rifle. She stayed staring at him then turned around, the creatures on either side of her were starting to look from side to side, they were not sure as to what was happening.

"We mean you no harm," she said. "our weapons..."

"Yousa tinkin' mesa will believe that," the creature on the white stone face snapped. "mesa knows yousa all gots other weapons on yousa person."

She was taken back, yes they had other weapons on them but the ones that they had thrown down to the ground were their main ones. With a slight shake of her head, she removed two knives from her side and a pistol, she threw them to the ground. Turning around in her saddle, she stared at her group hard. Each one discarded their weapons to the ground, all the knives and pistols. Turning herself around, she looked at the creature on the stone face. He was still looking at them angrily.

"All of our weapons are now on the ground," she said. "there are no weapons on our person anymore."

"Yousa still hisens!" the creature yelled. "Yousa all da cause of uss-en bein' hair and not in our homes."

"No no!" she exclaimed. "Never, we would never attack or harm one of yours."

"Yousa all bombad!" the creature yelled.

"We're just here..." she started.

"Enough!" the creature bellowed. "Yousa all begun or yousa all be pune-ished!"

The first thought that came through her mind was Jar Jar, would he be okay and was it okay to leave him with is people. They seemed right hostile. Looking down at the creature from her atop her horse, she saw that he was beyond scared. Having to think fast was not her area, she hated thinking quickly, but it seemed that this was the time to do so. Leave Jar Jar behind or take him with them, she was sure he'd be safe with them but she wasn't so sure he'd come along. Before she had a chance to think further on the situation the creature with the booming voice spoke up.

"Jar Jar will-a stay hair with uss-en." the creature boomed loudly. "Yousa all go now!"

She figured that was her answer, Jar Jar was allowed to stay with his people. She wasn't sure how that was going to pan out but she figured it was better than him being alone our in the woods where a bunch of rifle and bow and arrow weilding humans were running on the loose. She thought about dismounting and getting the weapons they had discarded but was stopped short when the creature on the side on the two legged animal dismounted and started collecting their weapons, another creature, nearly as tall as he, walked up with a basket. The one collecting their weapons dropped all of them in the basket.

"We leave now." she said.

Turning her horse around, she pushed her group from the back out of the camp that the hostile creatures were staying. Deep inside she had a fear that her leader would not be pleased in the least that their weapons had been conviscated or that they had just dropped off Jar Jar and left without a fight, she also had a deep feeling that she had not seen the last of the robust creature or the two creatures that had collected their weapons. Taking a deep breath, she nudged her horse into a trot and hurried her group away into the brush and away from the hostile people. When they were out of earshot she let a big woosh of air from her lungs out.

"What the hell was that?" Steven growled. "We rode into camp, got yelled at then had our weapons taken now we're just going back to our ship without anything in return?"

"Would you rather us be thrown in jail or worse killed for something we didn't do?" Wendy asked.

"You coward." Steven said angrily.

"I'm only 19!" Wendy yelled back.

"You were suppose to act as a 30 year old." Steven shot back.

"I have no idea how to act 30," Wendy near cried. "I've only lived half that."

Wendy wasn't in the mood for others to be chiding her, now that she was away from the creatures camp she lowered her rank. Steven Nigro was her former history teacher from when she went to high school, he had medium length brown hair and brown eyes, normally he's be wearing brown khaki's and a blouse with red or blue buttons but today he had blue jeans and a muscle shirt on. He had brought with him a M1903 Springfield rifle that he had thrown down at the creatures camp, she was sure he was not happy about loosing that gun.

"What are we going to tell Angel when we get back to the ship? Vinny asked.

"That we returned Jar Jar to his people," Wendy replied. "what else should we tell her?"

"How about that we are several fire arms down?" Steven hissed.

"She's not going to be happy hearing about that." Peter sighed.

Peter was right, for an english teacher he was right about what he had said. They were low on both fire arms and ammunition and with their weapons being conviscated they would be at a severe handicap. Peter Barringer, a tall 37 year old man with short brown hair and blue eyes, rolled his shoulders. He was wearing a camouflaged pair of pants and a white short sleeve shirt that made him look bigger than he was. He had brought with him one of his personal guns, a M1 Garand, she had been surprised when she had seen the gun as she had never know her former teacher to have or own any guns, he looked far from a gun owner.

"Better the guns than us being arrested and killed for something we didn't and would not do." Wendy said.

"Really I agree with that." Vinny yelled back. "But still with the environment here I'd much rather have a gun for protection."

Vinny Ferriallo, a 45 year old man and her former earth science teacher, was up a head of everyone on a splashy paint Mustang gelding that had been caught in Utah three years ago. He was wearing a very odd outfit, a hippish pink and red shirt with green pants that had been splashed with bleach to give them a "unique" feel and sneakers. He looked odd and he knew it, normally at this time of year he would have dyed and cropped his hair yellow but for the moment it was black. He also surprised him when he had brought out a Winchester rifle, he was now minus the weapon and he looked non to pleased about it.

"Did you see their faces when they saw us?" George Moseley asked. "They were not happy in the least about seeing us there."

"I think that big guy in the front was the most angered of them," Vinny chuckled. "he was ready to pounce on us."

Beside Steven Nigro was a medium height man of 28 years, he was a professional hunter and had only been brought on the trip because of that, Wendy knew that much about him. He was wearing camouflage pants, a camouflage jacket and a white shirt, on his feet were camouflage boots. He was bald and had icy blue eyes, the iciest eyes she had ever seen. The horse under him was his own, a sorrel gelding with scar marks on his sides. Wendy knew nothing about the horse but she knew enough about horses by working for her leader, Angel, that the horse was a Quarter Horse. He was not happy she could tell about having to leave his prized gun behind.

"We've done enough today," Wendy said. "lets head back to the ship."

Wendy had figured that her leader would have been pissed that the weapons had been lost but to her surprise when she had entered her leaders cabin on the boat she had met with a kind, understanding, woman. Her leader had been in her bed, propped up by pillows, looking out the window when she had walked in.

"I saw you and the others come up." her leader had said. "Did the trip go well?"

"Well not as exactly smooth as it should have been," Wendy started. "we lost our weapons."

Her leader sat up a little straighter, she grimaced in pain but managed to sit on the edge of her bed. Her hair was a bright red and her eyes when she looked up at her were a emerald green, the prettiest of green she had ever seen.

"How did you lose your weapons?" her leader asked.

"Before you get mad," Wendy said quickly. "let me explain. We came up to the camp and met with some of the most hostile... angry people I have ever met. They stood there with their hands clinched at us and were staring at us with such hate and anger, it scared me to death."

Wendy stopped, she had to catch her breath, all of that was a mouthful and she just needed to catch her breath. Her leader was staring at her intently, she was taking everything in, everything she said. Pulling her hand up, she tugged at her shirt collar before starting up again.

"We took Jar Jar back to his people, this one didn't seem so happy to see us, in order for us to not be arrested and killed I ordered that we all throw our weapons to the ground. We did and they were conviscated by this purplish brown skinned guy." She finished.

Her leader took it all in and didn't say a thing for a while, when she started to stand she near yelped in pain. Wendy rushed forward and gently pushed her back down to the bed.

"We will make due with what we have on the boat," her leader said. "I have a few extra weapons on board that can be distributed."

"I wanted to collect the weapons that we left behind but when I saw that tall purplish brown skinned guy..." Wendy gasped loudly.

"Calm yourself Wendy," her leader said. "we'll make due and be fine with what we have available."

"Angel how can we?" Wendy exclaimed. "We're not just low on ammunition and weapons but also food and medical supplies, how are we going to make due on our dwindling supplies?"

Her leader looked up at her with her emerald green eyes, feeling a shiver she took the hint and sat down. She was about to get a life lesson from her friend and she wanted to make sure she listened, even though she really didn't want to.

"As you know from what all you've heard and been told I just showed up on the mainland, on the coast of New Jersey to be exact, one day when I was 15 years old." Angel started. "The only thing I had to my name was my sword and the clothes on my back."

Wendy stood up straighter, although she had been born in a different state and had moved to North Carolina when she was 5 years old, she had met Angel when she had turned 12. By then Angel had already made a name for herself, she already had a large stable packed with horses and a full pasture of foals, weanlings and yearlings, one of which would make her the most famous race horse owner and winner in history.

"I had nothing to get me by, no money, no nothing" her leader continued. "one day I was hungry and decided to lift a simple apple from a stand. I was caught and I was shipped off to an orphanage where I spent a year and a half of hell. I had nothing while in that orphanage, no mother or father, no siblings, no friends, the only thing I did have was a small blanket and a pillow to sleep on, I barely got fed because I refused to obey the order and I was beaten a lot. If it wasn't for the order that beat me I wouldn't have just up and grabbed my sword and ran off one day and if it wasn't for the order I would never met Mr. Kirshane."

Wendy knew what Angel was getting at but she didn't want to aggravate or hurt her by interrupting so she just sat there and listened. Angel had told her all about Mr. Kirshane, he had hired her to work at his racing stable, she had worked there all of six months before she quit.

"I really have to thank that man," Angel went on. "if it wasn't for him or his alcoholic step son I would never have gotten my foot in the door in the world of horse racing."

"You met The Don at Mr. Kirshane's stables." Wendy sighed. "You fell in love with the fiery horse and couldn't stand seeing him be put through the trauma that he put that poor horse in."

"I took every penny that that man gave me for working with him and spent it all on that horse," Angel continued. "I bought that little stallion and I gentled him and I trained him, I raced on top of him and I won then I retired him to stud and I got good offspring from him."

"And you still are..." Wendy said quickly.

"Yes," Angel sighed. "I still get good offspring from him."

Angel paused for the longest time, Wendy thought she had fallen asleep. She had been injured bad and had been drifting off to sleep a lot lately. Standing up, she prepared to leave the cabin when her leader spoke up.

"Moral of what I am telling you," Angel said sleepily. "never underestimate how much you have or don't have. Appreciate what you have and take good care of it, you'll never know when something else will drop on your lap that is good... or bad."

When Wendy left the room she bumped into Andrea who had a glass of tea in her hand. She apologised then stepped to the side, when Andrea went in the cabin she caught a glance of Angel nodding her head. She didn't want to leave like that, without saying a word, but she did so. When Andrea turned around to close the door she saw a frown on her face, she knew what it was for. She didn't need to be told that a few members of her group thought of her or the other two younger members on the ship were a bit annoying. Sometimes they listened only half way and other times they didn't listen at all, she figured that it was a late teenage thing she was going through. Sighing hard, she started down the hallway towards her cabin.


	2. Chapter 2

Sitting in her cabin was one thing, sitting in her cabin in silence was another. The men on the boat were right loud, particularly one. Peter was hounding another member of the group and that member was getting a bit annoyed with him. Wendy could hear it in the tone of her voice and the way she trudged by, she was about to crack.

"Come on," Peter said. "what's so wrong about a little fun?"

"I am married," the woman he was hounded spat. "and so are you."

"So what!" Peter exclaimed. "I mean, I love my wife and I'm sure that both she and your husband will understand that we have needs that need tending to."

Although Wendy was young, she knew what Peter was hounding her crewmate about. They had been on the sea for about two months and had pulled up to the island three and a half weeks ago. Steven, George, Vinny and the other male on the boat had taken care of themselves rather well, and had done so without much noise, but Peter though was another story. He figured that since there were a few adult females on the boat he could pick off on of them for awhile. The one he had picked was a rather beautiful woman, someone he worked with and although she was a nice woman she was having none of what he was asking her to do.

"Go away Peter!" the woman yelled. "I'm not interested!"

Day and night, they even fought at mealtime, it was getting on her nerves and she was sure that it got on everyone else's nerves too. Steven had slammed his fist into Peter's jaw one time when Peter had started yellign across the room at Pam and Vinny had had an exchange of words with Peter when he had stopped her in the hallway and she had started screaming at him to leave her alone. When Angel was well he was hounding her for a while until she turned on him, it hadn't been pretty but everyone had cheered her on, especially Pam.

"Peter will you leave Pam alone!" a woman yelled, it was a far yell so Wendy could tell that she was at the end of the hall. "She said that she wasn't interested, take the hint!"

Sighing, Wendy stood up and stretched, her cabin wasn't fancy but it suited her needs well. She had a small bed that was under a small circular window, a shelf and cabinet for her things, a closet and a small table and a chair, it was all she needed on the boat. Angel had told them to forget luxery things for a while, they were not going on the trip to have fun or spoil themselves, they were going for exploration.

"Wendy may I come in?" she Pam ask.

"Yes," she replied back. "it's safe."

The door opened and in walked a woman of medium height with long light golden hair, her eyes were as blue as the sky. Pam was what men on the mainland would call "The Prize", when she was in school she remembered three male students that had had deep crushes on her. Pam was wearing a green and blue shirt of thin material, her sleeves she had tied up around her neck to make a nice design on the front, she had blue jeans on and flip flops on her feet. Throwing her hair back, Pam walked forward and sat down beside her.

"Angel's asked for you to take George, Jonathon and Steven with you when you go out on reconnaissance," Pam said, she had a soft voice. "can you please take Peter with you?"

"Sure," Wendy said. "anything to help get him off of your back."

Jumping as high as she could, Wendy tried to do what Angel had done countless times but, sadly, she fell a little short. Her leg hit up against her mounts side and made her mount take a few hurried steps away from her. Snorting to herself, she put her foot in the stirrup and pulled herself up, it took quite a bit of a pull to get herself up in the saddle because the mare was a tall one. When her rump touched the saddle the mare threw her head up then started pawing the ship's boards.

"We just going to stand here or are we going to get going?" George asked.

Turning in her saddle, she saw that George had decided to bring along with him a machete. She didn't know where he had gotten it, all they had were three guns and those were being carried by Steven, Peter and Jonathon. He gave her a glance then kicked his mount hard in the ribs and passed her by. She really did not like the man and she could tell that the others in her small group weren't happy about him coming with them.

"Why are we going on this trip again?" Steven asked.

"Angel wants us to go hunting," Wendy replied. "we need meat."

"Meat!" Vinny exclaimed. "Such a word, I'm about to die on just noodles and hamburger."

What Vinny had said was true, they had ran out of meat food items a few weeks ago and had been surviving on solely hamburger and noodles. Not the best of diets, a lot of them were skronny looking, but it was keeping them alive. Since she didn't know where to find herds of animals on the island she trusted George to lead the way, if something came up she would take up her proposed position.

"What kind of animals do you think George will find?" she asked.

"Hopefully something with a lot of meat on its bones," Steven replied. "so far all we've found were birds and those can't be eaten."

The first thing that they had seen when they had arrived on the island was a flock of indigo-sapphire colored birds on a patch of ocean grass, Andrea had caught two and had studied them, everyone had been surprised when she had said that the birds were poisonous and could not be eaten, they were even more shocked when she had told them that they were not real, true, birds and that they shared characteristics of reptilians.

"Remember that big huge bird that soared over our boat?" Peter asked. "We thought it would swoop in and take us to its nest for supper."

Shivering slightly, Wendy remembered what had happened after the indigo-sapphire colored birds had flown off. Angel had been at the front of the boat looking out towards the island, Steven had been driving at the time, when all of a sudden their boat had hit something. Steven had stopped the boat and had exited the cockpit when all of a sudden the boat had lurched up about five or so feet, Angel had yelled out for everyone to grab a hold of something.

"We all freaked!" Vinny exclaimed. "I know that I thought we'd be experiencing an Andrea Gail moment."

The creature that had flown up out of the water was something that had made everyone's mouths drop in shock. A light blue colored flying animal with a drooping face and no feet had flown up out of the water just a few feet from their boat. Andrea had guessed it to be near eight and a half feet in height and twenty-four in length with a thirty one foot wingspan. The animal, Andrea had deducted, was the biggest flying animal on the planet.

"Never seen anything like it," Wendy said. "such a big animal and it was right under our ship and we didn't known about it."

They had seen a few species of fish but Andrea hadn't been able to catch any because they were fast, since she hadn't had a good meat meal in a while she had been a bit draggy, like everyone else. Instead she had decided to just take notes on what she saw, Wendy was sure that once Andrea got a good meal in her she would have more strength to chance and catch fish.

"Quiet everyone!" George called back.

"What?" Jonathon asked quickly. "What is it?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Wendy turned to her side and glanced at the man beside her. He was forty years old, medium height and was darkly tanned. He was wearing a hat because he was going bald, when he caught her looking at him he shrugged. His brown eyes caught hers for all of a second. He was wearing brown pants and a white muscle shirt, on his feet were black boots. His mount was one of Angel's, he was dark brown with a slim blaze running down his nose and three stockings.

George stopped his horse and dismounted, Wendy squinted her eyes and looked at the animal a little closer. The scars looked horrible, as if either he had been kicked by someone who wore spurs or been attacked by a wild cat. The sorrel horse's mane was cut very short, it didn't drop down onto the neck like the other horses and the tail was also cut short.

"What is it?" Wendy asked.

George was silent, he acted like he didn't hear her question. He was down on one knee and was looking at the ground intently. He stayed like that for all of three minutes before he stood up and remounted his horse. With a wave of his hand, he kicked his horse forward.

"What was it that got your attention?" Wendy asked.

"Footprint." George said.

Footprint, that was all she got back. She didn't get what kind of footprint or if it was a full one or not, George stayed quiet, wouldn't even answer their questions. Her ground traveled a few hundred feet before they heard a distant, but still loud enough to hear, roar. George kicked his horse hard in the ribs and ran off, leaving them behind very quickly. Steven and Peter yelled for him to stop but he didn't, he was there one minute and gone the next.

"Now what the hell was that about?" Steven asked.

"I have no idea," Jonathan replied. "I do know though that that guy is one strange son of a bitch."

Kicking his horse on harder, George craned his neck to see above the trees and the small creek that he was riding beside. The roar that he had heard was a loud one and he was sure that the pelt of the animal would be a good item to bring back to the mainland for his collection. He really didn't care about the other members in his group, he was only invited because he was a hunter and he just wanted to hunt then go back with his prizes. He didn't care much for having a woman as a leader, he preferred for a male leader, he also didn't much care for the leader of his group passing a nineteen year old as her or giving leadership to another woman. He viewed the men in the group as weak, they obeyed all that their so called leader told them to do without question, even the other experienced hunter did so. He couldn't believe that they had found this world by just luck and weren't doing anything other than exploring and a little research.

"Nothing but softies they are." he said to himself. "Better off to be alone than to be with them pussies."

The roar was heard again, louder this time, closer. With a swifter, harder, kick, he pushed his horse on. The horse under him was ten years old and had been his hunting companion for years, he had had him when he had gone to African to hunt the Buffalo and had taken him with him to Alaska to hunt Polar Bears, the scars on his sides were from a Mountain Lion that he had nearly killed, had his horse not stumpled and fell that was. In front of him was a fallen log, with a final kick, he rode his horse towards it and when his horse jumped the log he met with a shocking situation.

"Grab the arms Commander!" a tall creature yelled.

"I've got the arms!" the tall creatures companion yelled back. "Shock him!"

There were two of the creatures that he and the group he had been assigned to had seen when they had brought Jar Jar back to his people, he didn't really care about them as much as the creature in between them.

The creature looked like a Gorilla from the top down, it was covered on its top half with dark brown near black fur and had a Gorilla-like face, when it opened its mouth he could see five teeth, three one the top and two on the bottom, the creature had a Gorilla-like mouth and small yellow eyes. That was all the comparison to a Gorilla, the creatures lower half was odd, the limbs in the front were long and muscular while the back limbs were thin looking and not strong, the creature had two toes on his front limbs that had two claws growning from them, they looked tri-tipped to him whenever the creature jerked up. The back end of the animal was bald and the skin ws wrinkled.

"George," his radio called out. "George where are you?"

That was all it took to get the attention of the two bipedal creatures and the animal that was between them. The creatures attention off of it, the animal bound up and ran right towards him, mouth agape and screaming loudly. The bipedal creatures had a hold of ropes that were around the animals neck and arms, they pulled the ropes hard when the animal raced towards him but it was a battle lost, the ropes broke. Bringing his machete up, he readied himself for when the animal was within five feet of him he planned to swing the weapon and end its attack on him.

"Angel's not going to be very happy about George running off leaving us alone in this forest." Jonathon said.

"No she won't" Steven replied. "George come in, where are you?"

Steven had been on the radio for all of ten minutes trying to call George and get him to come back, they were lost in the forest, they had no idea where there were or how to get back. They had heard three more roars then a loud scream. Afterwards everything had gone quiet, a bit too quiet. Thinking to herself, she tried to figure out what Angel would do. Would she continue forward or turn back, would she send a message in through the radio for help? Steven was the only one with the radio in her small group, would he allow for her to send a message for help, shaking her head, dropping her eyes, she turned her horse around and rode her towards Steven.

"May I have the radio please?" she asked.

"Yeah let me send out one more call to George." Steven said.

Steven sent the call out, this time he was more stern and demanding. He actually made her want to step back a few feet. When there was no reply he sighed angrily then handed her the radio. Dismounting quickly, she took hold of the radio and pushed the button on the side.

"Andrea come in," Wendy said. "over."

Static, that's all she got. She wondered if they were too far away from the craft. Starting to sweat, she tried again. When she was greated with more static she handed the radio to Steven. He patted her on the back then put the radio away.

"Well now what?" Peter asked. "Should we turn back and head for the craft wherever the hell it is or head in the direction George went?"

That was a good question, Wendy thought. Steven, Peter and Jonathan were all looking at her for an answer. Hanging her head low, she figured it was best to just turn back. With a gently tug on her reins, she turned her horse around.

"We head back." she said. "We'll come back with Beth to find George."

Heading back was easier said than done, she figured that they were going in the right direction until they found themselves in front of a large blue lake with a waterfall at one end. She thought it was beautiful, she had never seen a more blue lake in her life. Steven and Vinny were both sitting on their horses with their mouths slightly open, Jonathon and Peter had dismounted as soon as they had seen the lake. All four of their horses were pulling at their reins, they wanted a drink.

"Should we?" Vinny asked.

Wendy didn't need to answer the question, a few fish jumped out of the water then the water was calm. Dismounting, she walked to te lake and knelt down, cupping her hands she took some water and drank it. It was the tastiest, cleanest water she had ever tasted in her life. Turning to her small group, she gestured to them that it was okay and to let the horses come forward. Vinny's horse got to the water the fastest, at first he blew in the water then he started drinking. Before any of them could do anything else all of their horses pulled the reins out of their hands and bound into the water.

"Angel's going to kill us about them wet saddles." Steven laughed.

Wendy had jumped in the water after her horse, when she touched the mares back the mare stopped splashing water and looked at her. She wanted to play in the water. With a sigh she undid all of the buckles on her horses saddle and slid the saddle off of her horse. Her horse threw her mane up into the air, whinnied, then trotted off further into the water, it was now almost up to her back.

"Go unsaddle and let them play," she said to her companions. "a little break might help us get our bearings."

An hour had passed, they were just sitting by the lake looking out at the sun as it set. The horses had all gotten out of the water and were either eating the grass on the edges of the lake or were sleeping. Steven's pinto gelding had actually layed in the lake and they rolled over, it had made everyone chuckle a little. Vinny's horse, a lovely liver chestnut with a lightning blaze and one stocking, had just ran around the lake, splashing water all around, making happy horse sounds.

"We need to get back." Wendy sighed. "Everyone is probably worried sick about us."

"All I get on the radio is static," Steven said. "I'm more worried about the others than ourselves."

"I think it's because we are too far from them to be picked up." she replied.

"No," Steven replied back. "this radio can be picked up from twenty miles away."

"How far away do you think we are from them?" Wendy asked.

"By guess," Steven said. "maybe ten or twelve miles, we didn't go very far."

Vinny and Jonathon were off by themselves about twenty feet away when the gun shots went off. Steven and Peter cocked their guns and started yelling for whoever was firing to stop, a few seconds later it did. Jonathon stood beside Wendy, as if protecting her, everything had gone silent. Nothing moved, nothing made a sound, for five minutes then they heard more firing and then from the trees came two tall creatures of Jar Jar's species.

"Hep hep hep!" one of the creatures screamed.

"Get her!"

One of the creatures ran out of the forest to the banks of the lake and jumped in, the other though stopped when it saw her and her group. The one creature looked male, was taller and more muscular than the other, the one that had stopped was shorter and more slender and had its haillu tied back behind its head. When the one that had stopped stopped it was jumped on by two men in camoflaged outfits.

"Gotcha ya little slime ball!" one of the men cheered. "You'll make a nice addition to my harem at camp."

The two men were tying the creature up when the other one jumped up out of the water, she had never seen someone jump as high as the creature had. She could have swore he jumped ten feet in the air. He landed perfectly on top of one of the men and grabbed the other, the man he had landed on rolled over quickly and fired one shot into the creatures leg. That was as much as she could take, grabbing Steven's gun and fired.

"Don't just stand there!" she yelled. "Fire!"

It looked like a war was under way. Vinny, Jonathon and Wendy all firing at once with Steven rushing forward and tackling the one man that had gotten loose from the creatures grip. He was punching the man mercilously and the man was punching him back as much as he could. The two creatures had run off to the lake, Wendy could see out of the corner of her eye that they were just floating with their heads held up out of the water. With one final shot, the man that had run off then turned around and opened fire on them was gunned down.

"Yeeeeehaaaaw!" Jonathon exclaimed. "That is what I'm talking about!"

"Why in the world were they chasing them creatures?" Wendy asked.

Vinny was looking out at the lake, one of the creatures was swimming to shore towards him. He was intriged, he hadn't had any time to speak to Jar Jar about his people because he was always following Angel around and Angel never stayed in one spot for too long. Placing his weapon on the ground in clear sight of the creature, he stepped forward and offered his help to it. The creature stopped swimming and stared at him, he could tell that the creature was both afraid of him and curious at the same time.

"It's okay," he said to the creature. "I won't hurt you."

"Ceesi!"

The creature that had stayed in the middle of the lake came forward very quickly, when it was within five feet it jumped up from the water and landed behind him. Turning around, he wasn't quick enough to miss the punch that was aimed at him.

Wendy turned around as soon as she heard the "oomph", she was shocked at how much taller the creature was than what he seemed at a distance. His arms were big, his shoulders were muscular and his legs slender. She could have swore he was related to Jar Jar had he not have had yellowish orange skin instead of plain orange. Vinny was down on the ground looking up at the creature, the only thing he moved was his jaw.

"Don't hurt him!" Wendy exclaimed. "We mean you no harm."

"I'm sick of you humans!" the creature yelled. "I can't even go to the bathroom without one of you chasing me much less escort Mr. Nass's daughter to the bathroom."

Wendy was taken back, the creatures words had been spoken in such hate that it made her want to cry. Looking to her left and right, she could tell that Jonathon and Peter were equally taken back. Steven was coming up on her far right, his knuckles were bleeding and his bottom lip was ripped open.

"We mean no harm to any of you," he said, blood dripping down from his lip. "if we did mean you harm I wouldn't have run forward in the line of fire and attacked that one guy or they wouldn't have opened fire on your pursuers."

The creature turned towards Steven, its haillu raised and its mouth sneared. Wendy took a step towards Steven then stopped, the creature glared once then turned around and walked away towards the trees, he gestured to the other creature to follow. When the smaller creature hesitated, the taller one came back and ushered it forward.

"What are you?" Wendy asked before they could disappear from sight.

"A problem if you and your species keeps it up." the one creature yelled back.


	3. Chapter 3

Three hours, they had been gone for all of three hours and not a word had been heard from them. She was getting worried, very worried. Their trip should have lasted no more than an hour, at best an hour and a half, but they had been gone for three. She had kept herself busy by doing some cleaning and checking if Angel was okay, but she couldn't keep busy anymore. The sune was setting fast, the clouds were coming in fast and she could smell rain.

"Anything from the radio?" Andrea asked.

"No nothing!" Laura yelled back.

There were few adults on the boat now, when they had been attacked a week and a half ago five men had been killed leaving just her, Vinny, Peter, Steven, Jonathon, Pam, Beth, George and Angel to run things, the younger members of the group were given very few things to do. They couldn't afford to lose anyone else, they all depended on each other for survival. Hanging her head low, she started to turn around when she saw something move in the distance.

"Stop!" Andrea called out. "Whoever you are come no farther!"

"Cool your jets woman!" she heard yelled back at her. "It's me George!"

As soon as she heard that it was George she rushed forward and lowered the ramp, she was estatic! Finally they had returned, she hoped that their trip was a good one and that they had brought some meat back, otherwise it would be noodles and hamburger again that night. Once the ramp was on the ground she waited, she could have jumped up and down for joy. When it was just George that stepped onto the ramp she stopped being excited. No one followed behind him, even his horse was missing. George was carrying a big beast on his back, it was hairy and bloody and it's face looked similar to a Gorilla's.

"Where's everyone else?" Andrea asked.

"I have no idea," George said as he passed her. "I tried to find them after I took down this big guy but couldn't find them."

She forgot about the creature on George's back, the only thing she could think of was that there were four of her crew out in the forest lost. Turning around quickly, she went below dock to the animal pens. She had been assigned a five year old mare named Melanie when they had set foot on the island, she hadn't had a chance to ride the mare yet but she had spent some time bonding with her. Walking through the open door she walked directly to Melanie's stall and looked in.

"Well hello there Funny Face." she cooed.

Melanie snorted, lifted her head once then let it fall back to where it was before she said anything. This was one of Angel's riding horses, a daughter of Don Quixotol that hadn't done well on the racing track before Angel had bought the stallion. She had been born a rusted pink in color and as she had grown had lightened up to a light gray. Her tail still had a few pink hairs in it. Swinging the door open, Andrea walked in and smoothed her hand over the mares shoulder. The mare lifted her head and looked at her, her light colored eyes staring at Andrea's brown ones curiously.

"We need to go out and find the others." she said to the mare.

George was busy up on deck cutting the fur from the animal he had killed earlier when he heard the sounds of hooves. Standing up, he looked over the bow and saw nothing, no one on a horse walking slowly towards the ship. Thinking that was odd, he turned around and saw the cause for the hoof falls. Andrea was leading her horse from the animal pens under the ship to the dock.

"And where the hell do you think you are going Doc?" he asked.

"To find the others."

George looked at the woman like she had grown a second hand. She was in her mid fifties about mid height, with dark brown eyes and skin, her black hair was graying up some in the front. He didn't feel like going with her so he kneeled back down beside his prize and commenced cutting the fur off.

"Go with her George!"

Looking up sharply, he saw the militant woman of their group. This was one that he actually liked, a woman who had joined the army to make herself stronger than a normal woman. Standing up slowly, he put his knife away and nodded his head. The woman looked at him sharply.

"Go with her George," she repeated. "she needs help."

"I'm busy!" George said back. "Don't you see I'm in the middle of skinning an animal?"

"Fuck the animal!" the woman yelled back. "Our friends are more important that than animal!"

"Fuck you Beth!" George roared. "I spent a lot of energy killing this creature not to mention it killed my horse, I deserve a chance to skin and get the meat from it."

"The only thing you deserve is a good kick in the ass!" the woman spat at him.

"Screw him Beth," Andrea sighed. "why don't you come with me?"

Beth turned to her and stood silent for a minute, she turned her brown eyes down and looked at the floor of the boat for the longest time before looking up again. The light was dimming more and more, Andrea wanted to go out now and search before it got too much darker. Thinking that she would get no answer from Beth, she started leading her horse past her.

"Wait for me to saddle Scout," Beth said. "I'll come with you."

Andrea was getting annoyed with the wait, Beth had gone below deck to the animal pen five minutes ago, she should have saddled and bridled her horse by now. Melanie was pawing at the deck boards and was swishing her tail from one side to the other. Sighing and petting her horse, Andrea waited two more minutes before walking her horse down the ramp to the bank. When she mounted and looked behind her, Beth was walking down the plank with a black horse that had a white spot on his nose and three white socks.

"Took you long enough!" Andrea spat.

"Yeah sorry," Beth said hurridly. "he wouldn't let me saddle him or put his bridle on."

"Angel did say that he was a hard horse to saddle up at times," Andrea sighed. "you ready?"

"Yeah lets go," Beth said. "the stench of George is annoying me."

"Go to Hell Beth." George called from the deck.

Nudging her horse forward, Andrea trotted her horse on away from the boat and from the man that annoyed her. Beth's horse clopped behind her, Beth's horse was another of Don Quixotol's offspring before Angel got a hold of the stallion, he hadn't done anything good on the track and had been signed off to a man that was going to send him to a Mexican slaughterhouse, it was then that Angel had seen him, she had bought him for $500, already a rich woman from racing Don Quixotol she had had no trouble coming up with the cash for both him or his half sister Melanie.

"I still can't believe that Mr. Kirshane was sending both Melanie and Scout to a slaughterhouse." Andrea said. "They're such pretty horses, are fast and smart."

"Mr. Kirshane was an asshole," Beth said back. "remember what he was about to do to The Don?"

"Yes!" Andrea exclaimed. "He was going to just geld him and send him to a pony house."

"If Angel would not have stepped up and said she'd buy the horse the world would be without one of the best race horses and studs." Beth sighed. "She really saved his bacon."

"And in a way," Andrea replied. "The Don saved hers."

Melanie stopped short making Andrea stop talking, she couldn't get get her horse to take a step forward or back, looking back she could see that Beth was also having trouble with Scout. Scout's ears were fully forward and his eyes were wide open, it was the picture of a horse very keen on his surrondings. Dismounting without thinking about it, Andrea grabbed the reins and tried to make her horse walk forward. All it took was one tug on the reins then Melanie went up then raced off.

"Scout down!" Beth yelled. "Andrea grab this crazy horse!"

Before Andrea could grab the reins the horse started bucking, Beth stayed on for three or four jumps then went flying into a bush. Scout raced off in the direction Melanie had gone, he was there one time then gone the next.

"What the hell was that about?" Beth exclaimed. "There's nothing around yet they spooked and ran off."

"I'm more worried right now about the others," Andrea said. "Melanie and Scout can take care of themselves."

Beth's arm was bleeding from where she had scraped it against a branch but she was okay, shaking her head Andrea started walking in the direction the horses had gone. When she was fifty feet away from where the horses had spooked she started calling out for the others. She called out a few times then Beth grabbed her arm hard.

"What?" Andrea asked.

"You hear that?" Beth asked back.

Turning her head from side to side, craning her neck to see anything and everything that passed, Andrea at first didn't hear anything. A few seconds later she did, a call. A call for help. Starting to walk off, Andrea felt Beth's grip tightened around her arm. Turning around, she gave Beth a stare then moved off, towards the call.

"Anyone out there?" Wendy called. "Anyone at all? We're lost."

Wendy couldn't believe it when the two horses had run out at her and her group, she was still in shock. It was Angel's two horses, Scout and Melanie. Steven had grabbed a hold of their reins and was holding the horses still. His knuckles had stopped bleeding but his lip was still bleeding badly.

"We're out here!" Wendy called. "We're lost help us please!"

Vinny was sitting on the ground in front of his horse with his inhaler in hand, right after the two creatures had run off he had had an asthma attack. Peter and Jonathan were standing beside him, ready if he needed any help.

"Please we're out here!" Wendy yelled. "Help us!"

Scout threw his mane up and snorted, Melanie started pawing at the ground, both horses were antsy and she didn't know why. Jonathan was now scanning the area, his gun was half cocked. Before Wendy could say anything she felt a hard fist smack her in the back of her head.

"Where... where am I?" Wendy stuttered.

"I think the question you mean to ask," a man to her left said. "is what are you doing here."

Wendy felt sick, her head was throbbing and her stomach was queasy, there was a smell that wafted into her nose that was making her feel like she was wanted to get sick. It was night, wherever she was it was dark except for two torches in front of her, she couldn't see if her friends were with her or not.

"Where's my friends?" she asked.

"In another cell," the man replied. "the one right beside mine."

"Where are we?" Wendy asked the man.

"In the Gungan camp." the man replied.


	4. Chapter 4

The cell wasn't just pitch black and smelled bad of rotten fish, it was also right muddy in the cell and slippery. She had slipped and fell twice, her head felt like it wanted to fall off. Pushing her hands out in front of her, she walked forward slowly, trying to find a wall or something to grab a hold of. It felt like forever before her hands touched vertical bars, when she felt them she grabbed them and held on tight.

"What's a Gungan?" Wendy asked.

"A tall, sapient, barbaric creature that we've been fighting for months now." the man replied.

Wendy could tell that the man was close, the sound of his voice had gotten closer and more louder even though he was talking in a whisper. She didn't know what a Gungan was and although she was curious she really just wanted to know if her friends were okay and where the horses were.

"Why were we brought here?" Wendy asked.

"The Gungans have reconnaissance missions when the sun sets," the man said. "you and your friends must have been found and captured by them."

"We were by this big lake with a waterfall on one end," Wendy said. "we weren't doing anything but calling out for help from our friends."

"Bad decision," the man replied. "that called them to you."

Not being able to hold it in anymore, Wendy doubled over and vomitted on the ground. She heard the man in the cell beside her move and moan. When she was done vomitting she collapsed to the ground, she fought the urge to curl up in a ball.

"Get use to the smell," the man said. "it'll be with you all night long as punishment."

"Punishment for what?" Wendy exclaimed. "I haven't done anything!"

"Punishment for being a hunter," the man said. "punishment for hurting the Gungan people."

"I haven't hurt anybody," she screamed back. "I wouldn't hurt anybody or anything."

"Den whysa were yousa in da woods?"

All of a sudden lights went on all over the place, she was blinded but could hear well. The man in the cell beside hers was yelling obsenities to the being that had spoken and the being was ordering that the man be gagged and tied up. Closing her eyes tightly and keeping them so for a few minutes, she opened them and got her first look at her surroundings.

She was in a ten by twelve foot barred cell that had no floor except for the muddy ground, the bars and the roof were steel, each bar was a good four inches wide and were a light blue in color. In front of her stood three of the creatures that she and her group had seen when they had entered the creatures camp to take Jar Jar back to his people. The one in front was thin but not as thin as the two beside him, he wore a dark blue robe with silver edges on the bottom, the chest of his robe was open, showing the shirt underneath which was a dull brown in color. Hanging from the creatures neck was a silver and topaz necklace, very beautiful in detail and looked to be heavy, around his waist was a beautiful blue and green belt of delicate fabric. Before she could say anything the man in the cell beside her yelled out and attracted her attention.

"You barbaric bastards!" the man spat. "How dare you kill all in my camp and take me hostage!"

"Silence himsa!" the creature ordered.

"Lady don't believe in that gibberish he speaks!" the man yelled out at her. "They speak perfect english but prefer to speak in that retarded talk to us as if we're inferior."

"Yousa is infer-er," the creature said. "oder-wise yousa wouldn't be hair huntin' ussen."

"You can it coming you great blubbering monster!" the man exclaimed.

The door to the man's cell swung open and the two creatures that were behind the elaborately dressed one rushed in. The man got up and put up a minor fight but once the taller of the creatures swung his wrist and hit him in the jar with his wrist gauntlet he went silent. The creatures quickly tied him up and gagged him, when they were done they stepped out of his cell, the taller of the creatures locked the door behind him. Wendy couldn't stop herself, she pulled her legs in closer and started to cry.

"Stoppin dat!" the creature yelled at her.

"What are you creatures!" Wendy cried. "Why have you captured me and my friends and where are my friends?"

The creatures in front of her stood in silence, the man in the cell beside her and stopped fighting his bonds, Wendy couldn't control herself anymore. She started to cry out for her friends, for anyone who was not captured in her group to come help her. She was crying so loudly that she didn't hear the door to her cell open or hear the footfalls of the taller creature that had subdued the man in the cell beside hers come towards her. When she felt the creatures hand grab around her arm she freaked and jumped up. With all the strength in her body, she shoved him back and luckily for her, since the ground was slippery, his footing gave way and he fell down. Once he was down on the ground she ran forward and made it out of the cell.

"Catch her!" the creature yelled. "Bring her back now!"

Not stopping for the longest time and not looking back, Wendy raced on. She had heard loud thuds behind her and she figured that it was the beasts that the creatures road so she had ducked into the trees were she figured that the creatures couldn't follow. She passed by many trees and many large stones before she got to a big lake. Slowing slightly, she checked around only once then continued on. She wasn't that good a swimer but if the creatures were still following her she would surely jump in the lake and hope that they couldn't follow.

"Gotta get to the boat," she thought. "got to tell Angel what happened and got to safe them."

Her friends were on her mind heavily, she worried about them and about having left them behind. Would the creatures hurt them because of her escaping? Would they leave them alone and was it a good idea for her to of ran off like she was doing? She didn't know how far the boat was or even were it was, all she cared about was finding help for her friends.

"Hang in there you guys," she thought. "I'll get help and get you out of there then we're getting off of this island."

Beth was busy patching up a small hole on the boat when she heard the heavy thuds, she thought at first that it was one of the animals that she and Andrea had seen while on their way back to the boat. Angel had gotten on George real hard for running off and abandoning Wendy and her group, he was up on deck pealing potatoes. Sighing and with a final smooth of the tool on the boat, she turned around and met a sight that made her heart stop. Wendy was racing right towards her with a group of about four creatures that looked similar to Jar Jar riding on two legged creatures racing right behind her.

"George grab your gun!" Beth screamed.

Wendy was running so fast and wasn't paying much attention to were her feet fell that she didn't see the root that was up out of the ground. When her foot got tangled up on it she fell and she fell hard. Screaming loudly, both out of fear and pain, she started crawling. The thuds behind her had stopped but she could hear her chasers dismounting. She pushed herself on to the bushes and hid, hoping that they couldn't find her. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she waited.

"She's around here somewhere," she heard one say. "check the bushes and the trees."

The man in the cell beside hers before he had been gagged and tied up and before she had run off had said that they could speak perfect english and from what she was hearing he was right. She couldn't tell how many there were, but she knew there were more than just two that had followed her. Taking a deep breath in and holding it in, she tried to calm her heavily beating heard. Not one second passed before she felt a pair of tough hands grab her from behind.

"Help!" she screamed. "Help me somebody!"

The hands that had grabbed her pulled her from the bush, one of the hands wrapped around her mouth, silencing her. Kicking her feet out and throwing her hands around, she tried to put up a fight. She couldn't do much because the run had nearly taken all of her energy.

"Wendy," she heard. "it's George!"

George! When she heard the name George she felt like crying. It was such a word and a name that made her spirits go from low to high. George, the accomplished huntsman was alive and was helping her. Turning around quickly, she grabbed him in a tight hug, he moaned but didn't move away but instead patted her on the shoulder. Her moment of happiness was short lived as as soon as he stopped patting her shoulder a bipedal creature jumped out from the other side of the bush and landed right in front of them.

"I'm tired of you bombad humans," the creature bellowed.

That's all the creature was able to say, George pulled his gun up and let it creature flopped to his side once then got up on his knees and threw a pole at the pair. Wendy ducked quickly, but George was impaled. Screaming, both in horror and in stunned disbelief, Wendy crawled over to George who had fallen to his side, the pole had impaled him in his chest.

"George!" Wendy called.

"Run!" George sputtered. "I'll... I'll hold them oph...ah."

Wendy didn't know how many had followed her before she had crawled into the bushes but now she did. Looking back she saw that there were four, she couldn't tell if the one on the ground was seriously injured or not. With a cry she stood up and started running again. Her foot hurt her so she couldn't run very far, she stopped when she heard George yell out curses and heard his gun go off, she wanted to go back when she heard him yell out in pain. Shaking her head, she felt hot tears fall down her cheeks, she limped on. When she reached a downed tree she stopped, crawling under it she curled up and hoped to be left alone.

Beth had heard the shots and had heard George yell out a few times, now it was silent. Climbing up to the tower, she cocked her gun and readied it in case it was needed. It was dark out and Wendy had ran right past the boat, as had her four pursuers. George had raced out after Wendy and she guessed he had found her, she now wondered if both had been hurt badly.

"See anything up there?" Pam asked.

Beth didn't answer, she was too deep in thought. She scanned the area deeply, when she didn't see anything she started climbing down from the tower. Pam was wearing a shawl as it was a bit chilly out at night, when Beth descended the ladder she was embraced in a deep hug by Pam. Taking a deep breath she moved towards the ramp, before she could get there a hand fell on her shoulder, turning around slowly, she looked into the eyes of her good friend Mary.

"I'll go with you." Pam said.

"No, I'm the only one for this job," Beth said. "I'm the militant remember."

"Good luck G.I. Jane!" Pam exclaimed.

When her feet touched the ground she dropped to her belly and dragged herself along until she got to the shrubbery on the other side of the trail, when she got there she started duck walking along the bushes. Her gun was cocked, ready to use if it calls for it. Scanning both ways, keeping all of her instincts up on high alert, she moved along. When she got to an area where the bushes parted she stopped, standing in front of her, about a hundred feet from the boat, were three tall, bipedal creatures, there was one sitting on the ground with his arm held close to his stomach.

"Bombad human!" the creature on the ground growled in pain. "Got me good."

"Quiet up Neb Neb," the creature next to the downed one said. "he only grazed your arm."

"Grazed?" the creature named Neb Neb repeated. "he shot me General! He didn't graze he shot me!"

"You hopped out of the way before it could do much damage," the statused creature said. "you're more scared than hurt."

Slowly duck walking forward, craning her neck as much as she dared without being seen, Beth tried to see if George or Wendy were with the creatures. With a gasp, she pulled back. Another one of the creatures, this one taller and thinner, was walking of the bushes and he was pulling George by his arm. From what she could see, George had a pole stuck in his chest pretty far and he was not fighting the creature, he was still.

"Bombad human!" the creature on the ground hissed at her friend.

"Enough Neb Neb," the taller, thinner, creature said. "he's dead."

He's dead, that all that rang through her ears, nothing else but "he's dead". Lowering her eyes, fighting tears and the anger that was boiling inside of her, Beth moved a little to the side, she didn't see Wendy and she was very worried about her.

"And the other one?" Neb Neb said. "Where is that human?"

"Ran off," the tall, thin, creature replied. "I believe this was her mate."

"Or her brother." the one with the status spoke.

"Knowing these humans," the tall, thin, creature said. "it could be both."

Shaking her head, not wanting to hear anymore, Beth moved on. She duck walked around the creatures silently then when she was on the other side of them she turned around and started crawling. Ever silently, making sure to not touch leaves or rocks, she made sure she had put a hundred feet from her and the creatures before she half stood up. Looking back, making sure that she had not been sighted, she started calling for her friend in a whisper.

"Wendy..." she whispered. "Wendy are you around here?"

Wendy was half asleep from fatigue and fear, she was in deep mourning for her friend, the ground under her was wet from her tears. She didn't care anymore if she was caught or not, she just cared about getting some rest. Her foot was hurting her, she could feel it swelling up, she had scraped her arm on a stick and it was hurting her. With a sigh she rolled over to her other side and allowed her eyes to fall, before she could fall asleep she saw the silhoutte of a woman that she thought was part of her dream about being back home in her bed in her parents house.


	5. Chapter 5

"Will she be alright?" Angel asked.

"She'll be fine," Andrea replied. "badly scared and with a very badly sprained ankle but she's alive."

"The others still missing?"

Andrea looked at her leader and tried hard to not show the fear in her eyes, Wendy had been the only one to return, the others were still out there. She remembered when Beth had ran out of the shrubbery with Wendy in her arms, Andrea had at first thought that she was dead then when she had ran up to Beth she had seen Wendy's eyes slightly open. When she had asked about George all she had gotten was a "don't ask" from her friend.

"As far as I know yes they are." Andrea sighed.

"We're down to just 6 of us now," Angel sighed back. "and the one that knows most about this island is currently unable to do much of anything."

Andrea had been hearing Angel talk about her knowing a lot about the island that they were currently on almost every day, it made her wonder if her friend wasn't getting delirious from her injuries. When Jar Jar had jumped on their ship her friend had not hesitated to open fire on his pursuers, one had fired an arrow that had penitrated her ribs while another of Jar Jar's pursuers had fired a shot at her chest, luckily she had moved slightly and it had gone into her shoulder. Angel had fought hard not to be taken below deck after Jar Jar's assailants had been finished off, she had been most curious about the creature, as had she, but she had been more worried about her friend than the creature that had decided to hide behind the ladder that descended the cockpit.

"Angel we will find them," Andrea assured her friend. "if I have to lead another group..."

"No!" Angel interrupted suddenly. "No, we're too short on manpower and the young ones cannot fire guns."

"Then how are we going to find the others?" Andrea asked. "If I can't go out with a few of our few members to find our missing friends then how are we going to find them?"

Angel went quiet for the longest time, her green eyes stared out the window, her arms stayed over her chest, one hand tightly clinched around her sheet while the other was relaxed. Andrea thought for a moment that she wasn't going to answer her question and stood up, she was half turned around when Angel spoke up.

"We start the ship," Angel said. "and we continue on."

Three days, it had been three days since he and his friends had been caught and thrown in the cell that they were in now, the man in the cell beside theirs had started to go a bit crazy and had been tied up to the bars of his cell, every once in a while whenever he or one of his friends would cast a glance in his direction he'd start up on how he had gotten caught. The man's name was Patrick Hocksetter, he was a professional hunter and was on the island for both sport and to, as he put it, nab himself a female. He had been caught one night nearly a week and a half ago in the creatures camp trying to snatch a young one from her tent.

"How long has it been again?" Peter asked.

"Three days," Steven repeated for the third time that day. "three long, humid, days."

"Feels like three weeks." Vinny wheezed.

Vinny's inhaler had been confiscated, he was having a hard time breathing. The creatures, that they had found out were called Gungans, had seen him breathing hard several times but had done nothing. Steven had tried to stop a tall, thin, Gungan, their cell manager as Peter called him since they hadn't heard of a name yet, but all he had done was glance at them then continue walking.

"Take slow, deep breaths Vin," Steven said to his friend. "you'll be fine."

"Slow, deep breaths," Vinny repeated, wheezing more. "I'm not a woman."

"Just take some slow, deep breaths," Steven said, a bit agitated. "try to breathe."

Jonathan was the one that was acting a bit strange, he was pacing back and forth in front of the cell and mumbling all the while. Steven wanted to walk forward and stop him but he couldn't, his ankle was badly bruised and he couldn't use it. The Gungans had attacked Wendy first, a medium height male had slammed his hand against her head and she had collapsed. He hadn't had a chance to move forward before another had knocked him down, he had tripped his captor and a fight had happened, the Gungan had grabbed him by his ankle and, although he was a big man of a hundred and ninty pounds, had picked him up and swung him hard against a tree. He had gone out like a light bulb after that.

"Need to get out," Jonathan repeated. "need to get out."

"Shut up man," Steven whispered. "shut up before you get tied up like that man across from us."

"Need to get out," Jonathan said again, not hearing Steven. "need to get out."

"Enough!" Steven yelled, finally not being able to take it anymore. "The only way we're getting out of here is if our friends come get us."

A Gungan guard that was walking past their cell stopped short and looked at him, in his hand was a pole and Steven guessed that he would use it if he detected any type of aggression from him. Jonathan kept pacing the cell and kept repeating "need to get out", Steven shook his head then sat down. He figured there was no use in even trying to get Jonathan to calm down. Sighing, he allowed his head to fall back on the bars.

"Think we'll be able to get any type of food today?" Peter asked the Gungan loudly.

"Or water?" Steven sighed. "I could go without eating for a few days but no water in this climate..."

"Screw the water and food," Vinny wheezed as loud as he could. "how about giving me my inhaler so I can breath?"

The Gungan looked at them and didn't move, he just stared at them with his orange eyes. The Gungan looked young, around twenty, and was a dark green in color with a milky yellow undertone. His shirt was like that of many of the other Gungans, simple brown with a triangle at the base of his neck cut out, his pants were a blue color but did not look like jeans, they looked much too thin to be jeans, the knees of the Gungans pants were yellow and in an oval. Over the shirt of of Gungan was, what looked to be a thin made bone or armor-like material, there was about two inches of space between the bars, the armor-like materal, Steven knew, was hard! The belt on the Gungan was made of the same material, but instead of the belt being painted red brown like the chest armor it was painted yellow. The Gungan had head gear on, the top was wrapped around his stalked eyes then went down and covered the hanging ear-like appendages that Jar Jar had called haillu that hung behind his head. Around his wrists were wrist and lower arm gauntlets, both the gauntlets and the head gear were painted a red brown.

"Hey hard head!" Peter yelled loudly. "If not get us soemthing to eat or drink get Vinny his inhaler!"

The Gungan turned to them and started to walk with the pole pointed at them, before he could say anything another Gungan came forward and placed his hand on his shoulder. This Gungan was older, Steven guessed by about twenty or so years, but had a similar uniform to the younger Gungan except that he had a solid belt of the same material but had a buckle on it that was milky yellow in color.

"Git dem some food," Steven heard the Gungan say. "an git Cap'n Tarpals."

Patrick had said that the Gungans could speak perfect english before he had fallen into a deep sleep, Steven wished that they would speak to them in english but they preferred to speak in, what he called, their gibberish. Putting his hands on the bar behind him, he pulled up hard and slowly, his body rose from the ground. His ankle hurt, his stomach was growling, his eyes burned some and his body was sweaty, when he was fully standing he removed one hand from the bar and started unbuttoning his shirt.

"What'n yousa wantin'?"

Looking up from unbuttoning his shirt, Steven saw a tall, much taller than the younger Gungan and slightly taller, by about six inches, than the other Gungan that were behind him. This Gungan looked older than both the Gungans behind him, his skin color was purplish in color with a milky undertone, his eyes were lighter orange than the two Gungans behind him, hanging from his face were whiskers, three on each side. The Gungan behind him had whiskers too, but they were light green in color and shorter. Pushing himself forward, fighting his ankle, Steven walked towards the front of the cell.

"He needs his inhaler," Steven said, pointing at Vinny. "he can't breathe without it."

"Hesa lookin' like he's breathin' fine to me." the old Gungan replied.

The Gungan was standing in front of him with his arms crossed, one of his eyelids was drooped low. The Gungan was wearing similar clothes to the two Gungans behind him but his uniform was much different. He had chest armor dark blue, almost black, in color with gold around the edges on, his belt was dark yellow in color and the buckle was huge, Steven guessed he was a higher official than the two behind him. Like the Gungans behind him he had head gear on, but unlike them his didn't go past his haillu, it just wrapped around his eye stalks and around the back of his head, the head gear was dark blue, almost black, in color, the same as his chest armor. He had on similar wrist gauntlets except that his were the same color as his chest armor and head gear and had a ring of gold around the edges.

"I..." Vinny started. "wish I was breathing fiiiinuh."

The old Gungan looked down at his friend, one of his haillu raised slightly as if further catching his friends words. Peter stepped forward and placed his hand on Vinny's shoulder, Vinny looked up and then looked down. Steven could tell that his friend was having a really difficult time breathing, his chest was now rising and falling more rapidly and, since Vinny's mouth was open, he could hear a whistle from him whenever he did take a breath in.

"If he doesn't get his inhaler soon his lungs will collapse," Steven said to the Gungan. "and he'll die soon after."

"An' datten mesa problem?" the old Gungan said, with a slight smile. "I ain'ta seein' any problem cept a huntin' hissen gettin' hisa dues."

"We are not hunter humans you stupid oaf!" Jonathan yelled.

Steven thought that that was all that it would take for the old Gungan to turn around and leave them so he rushed forward and reached his hand out, grabbing the old Gungan by his arm. The Gungan growled at him and grabbed his hand and tugged hard to the right, towards the bar to his right. Yelling out in pain, Steven pulled back quickly and lost his balance.

"You sick bastard!" Peter yelled. "Can't you see we aren't here to hurt you? The only sins we have done are on the mainland, we've not done a thing to your people!"

"Yeah, yousa bringin' da guns an' huntin' our forests," the old Gungan spat. "yousa meanin' more harm den yousa say yousa are."

"Captain..."

Steven looked up sharply, standing between the older Gungan and the two younger, lower statused Gungans, was a female Gungan that he guessed was between fifteen and nineteen years old. She was wearing a light brown dress with a very beautiful blue and yellow design on the front from the chest down to the waist and she had what looked to be some sort of flat wooden shoes on her feet. On her index finger was a very beautiful gold ring with pink, blue and purple gems. The old Gungan turned around slightly and once he caught eye of the female Gungan bowed.

"Lizzi," the old Gungan said after he bowed. "you shouldn't be here."

"The man on the ground," the young female said. "he looks sick."

"He is sick!" Peter exclaimed. "He can't breathe!"

When Peter spoke the female Gungan took two steps back fearfully, her eyes flashed towards Peter and they looked at each other. Peter quieted up quickly and turned away, Steven took the opportunity to see the Gungan more closely. Unlike the older Gungan in front and the two Gungans behind her, she had a broad wide, human-like head. He couldn't see if she had haillu or not but he could see that her eyes were set in her face and were a yellowish color, above her eyes were short slight crests, her nostrils were set more closer together. Her skin tone was light green with a milky undertone. She was about six feet three inches tall Steven guessed.

"Lizzi," the old Gungan said. "please go back to the tree."

"Why are those humans yelling out at us?" Lizzi asked. "I mean, if they claim to be friendly..."

"They are not friendly." the old Gungan hissed. "Their claim is false."

"My father wishes to speak to you about the stoning tonight," the young female Gungan said.

"He does," the old Gungan said quickly, surprised. "do you know which human will be stoned?"

The female Gungan stopped anad looked down to the ground for a few seconds before looking up again, her yellowish eyes caught Steven's, the minute they looked at each other he felt dread and he felt fear. The female Gungan named Lizzi stepped forward one step then said a sentence that left both Steven and Peter in cold silence.

"All of them," she said. "he says he wants all of them stoned."

Looking out from the railing, Andrea couldn't believe that her friend and leader was in the cockpit steering the ship to a small cove. Angel had surprised her and Pam by getting up out of bed, she was staggering around a little, she was off balance some, but she was walking and looked well except for a little bit of paleness to her skin.

"You think she'll be coming with us?" Pam asked.

"Yes," Andrea said, sighing to herself. "you know how Angel is."

"When she wants to do something she does it no matter what." Pam spoke in a slight whisper.

When Angel had exited her cabin wearing an unbuttoned long sleeve shirt with a low cut muscle shirt underneath and tight jeans, a belt was buckled tightly around her waist. On her feet were a pair of brown riding boots. Her red hair, much redder than Wendy's, flowed behind her when she walked, her emerald green eyes shone just as brightly as can be. Pam and Andrea, all they could of done when their leader and friend stepped out from her cabin was gawk in pure surprise and awe. Angel Irene was a beauty of a woman.

"Sue and Lauren are coming with us," Pam said. "Angel said they are."

"I think it's a bad idea," Andrea said quickly. "their young, what can they do to help?"

The ship came to a stop by a small rock, at first the two women thought that they had hit the rock but then they saw their leade descend the ladder from the cockpit. Their friend and leader was a small sized woman weighing around a hundred and five pounds and stood at about five foot seven inches tall.

"We leave in five minutes," their leader said. "no weapons."

No weapons, the two words made Andrea and Pam go cold, if they were not going to bring any weapons then how were they going to protect themselves. Angel stooped down and grabbed a small bag, she threw it over her back then went down below deck towards the cabins and horse pens. When she returned she had two young girls following her.

"It's about time that we were allowed to do something on this trip," Sue exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Lauren said excitedly. "I'm starting to go ship crazy."

Andrea looked from one girl to the next, Sue was a short sixteen year old Vietnamese girl with curly black hair that went to her shoulders and dark eyes, her skin was slightly tanned. Sue was wearing a red and pink tie dye shirt and red jeans, on her feet were red sneakers. Lauren, though, looked much different than Sue with her blonde hair and bright blue eyes, she was seventeen years old. Lauren was wearing a green t-shirt and blue jeans with white sneakers.

"Where's Beth?" Angel asked.

"Right here ready to go." Beth said.

Beth was leaning up against the railing, she was wearing a loose blue muscle shirt and blue jeans with black shoes on. Her short brown hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, Andrea wondered how she could make a ponytail with her hair because she cut it so short, her dull green eyes, no where near as pretty as Angel's, were slightly closed.

"Alright there's six horses saddled up on deck," Angel said. "mount up and lets go."

Night had fallen, there were torches lit all over the place and there were several large holes that had been dug, Steven guessed that they were for them. The man beside he and his friends cell had been untied from the bars of his cell and was pacing back and forth. Jonathan had calmed down a little, he was now sitting down in a corner with his head tilted up looking past the tree line. Peter and Vinny were sitting side by side, Vinny was still breathing heavily but was hanging in there. Peter had started counting backwards from a thousand, he was currently on number 643.

"It won't be long," Patrick sighed. "then I will be stoned and you guys will be next."

"Why us?" Peter asked. "Me, Steven and Vinny are teachers, we would never hurt one of their people."

"If your a bunch of teachers," Patrick said. "then why did you have weapons when they brought you in?"

"Protection," Steven sighed in reply. "we've also been attacked by people weilding guns since we've landed on this island."

Patrick had gotten cold with them the last few hours, had started treating Steven and his friends rather badly and had yelled out curses at any Gungan that had walked past. The old Gungan, their cell manager that had a status as Captain, had had to threaten him twice to shut his trap before he actually did. Patrick's long blond hair had been tied up in a ponytail before but now it was coming undone, his hair was all over his face, Steven could barely see his icy cold eyes. The man was wearing a full suit of camouflage, over shirt, pants even his boots were camouflaged, his undershirt though was black.

"I expect to be stoned first," Patrick said to himself. "I'll go first then they will then anyone else that they catch will follow suit."

More torches were being lit now, Steven had lost count at how many had been lit an hour age. The air was muggy, it was a little better than when the sun was up. He wished it would drop a degree or two though, he was sure that it was in the high seventies if not eighty degrees. He was getting scared now, if the rest of his friends couldn't find and get them out of the situation they were in then they were all doomed. Closing his eyes, he started praying.

"Alright you," Steven heard. "out!"

Opening his eyes, Steven saw that the old Gungan with the higher status was opening Patrick's cell. Patrick had moved to the back of his cell and was glaring at the Gungan, his arms were at his sides. The statused Gungan walked into the cell, grabbed Patrick by his hair, tied his hands behind his back then led the man out of the cell quickly, he glanced over at Steven and his friends once and that was it. Before Patrick was out of sight he yelled out to them.

"Good luck to you innocents," he yelled. "hope it's a better trip for you than for me."

Whatever the creatures were yelling about, Beth could tell they were both angry and happy at the same time. She had been told by her friend and leader, who had briefed them to not use her real name while out in the bush, to keep her eyes open for Steven and the others. At first she hadn't seen anything, then she saw a tall, thin creature, one she had seen once before somewhere, lead a man that was fighting him hard from a path that she figured was were they kept the prisoners to a clearing where a hole had been dug. Slowly, against her leaders orders, she got down on her stomach and crawled forward. When she was about fifty feet from the creatures she stopped.

"What are they going to do that that man." she wondered.

Pam was also wondering this, Angel, who had told her to use the name Abigail whenever she and her spoke or whenever she was brought up in reference, had told her to stand at a hill and that was what she planned to do. She had a good vantage point from here, could see everything. She had never seen so many of the creatures before, they were all tall and were either orange or green skinned, when the purple skinned creature stepped out onto the path with a blond haired man she had been surprised and scared.

"Don't look like anyone in our group," Pam thought to herself. "must be one of the hunters."

The man was fighting the purple skinned creature, he was pulling from one side to the other violently and the creature was pulling him hard, he had almost pulled the man to his knees and dragged him a few times. When he had gotten the man to a hole that had been dug he stopped, turned the man to him, said a few words then pushed him back. When the man landed in the hole he was sitting, before he could stand up more of the creatures came forth and started piling dirt up on him until only his head and a tiny bit of his shoulders could be seen.

"Why are they burying him?" Pam asked herself.

Exciting wasn't the word for the moment but for Sue she couldn't find another way to express how she felt about seeing what she was seeing. Both she and Lauren had been told to stay off to the side near a big tree by their leader, they could see some of what was going on but not all. They had seen a tall old looking creature lead a blond haired man out from a path but that was all. Lauren, being a little taller, was looking over the top of a bush and could see a little more, she had seen the man fight some and had seen the creature turn him around when they had stopped but after that she wasn't allowed to see anymore. Sue grabbed her by her shirt and pulled her down quickly, when her friend pointed up she saw that a tall, robust, man was stepping down some stairs that were behind a giant stone head. When he was on the ground he was no farther than five feet from them.

"The stoning is ready to start sir." Sue heard.

"Good." the tall, robust creature replied.

Sue hadn't seen the one that had spoke to the tall, robust creature, but she had gotten a better look at him through the bushes. He was maybe six feet nine inches tall, a bit robust maybe around two hundred and thirty pounds, he was wearing a long brown robe with an very intricate design on the front, a gold necklace hung from under his neck. Lauren was pushing against her, trying to get a better look at the man. Moving back, trying to push her friend and regain her balance, Sue's footing gave way and she fell. Right in front of the tall, robust creature.

Seeing the two young ones fall out of the bushes was one thing for Angel, seeing them land right in front of the tall, robust Gungan though was another. She pulled forward once they landed on the ground in front of him then she pulled back, making herself stay in control. She was sure that he would not harm them, at least not yet. He had the one in the hole that had been buried up to his shoulders to deal with first, he surely wouldn't stop whatever they were doing to the man to deal with two young girls.

"Captain Tarpals!" the tall, robust man bellowed. "Take these two human girls to the cells."

Captain Tarpals, she had thought that was the name of the Gungan that had led the man out but hadn't been sure. She had wanted to put her hand out and stop him so badly but had forced herself not to. The Captain walked forward, took one look at both Sue and Lauren then grabbed them up by their arms and led them away, when they passed her by Sue was begging to be let go, the Captain was nearly picking her up because she was pulling against him. Turning around slowly, beign quiet so not to attract attention, she followed him to where he was going.

Steven at first didn't know what to think of when he saw the old Gungan leading Sue and Lauren by their arms to the cell where he and his friends were at. Standing up quickly, disregarding the pain in his ankle, he took one step then stopped. The old Gungan was not bringing the two girls to the cell were he, Peter, Jonathan and Vinny were in, instead he was bringing them to the cell beside theirs.

"Sorry boyos," the old Gungan said to them. "no funsa for yousa."

"No thank you," Steven said in a gasp. "much too young for all of us."

"All-n youse makin' me laugh sometimes," the old Gungan laughed. "yousa tryin' to rilly make mesa tink yousa safe."

"You know how old those two are frog breath?" Peter said, annoyed.

"Nosa," the old Gungan said quickly. "an' mesa not wantin' to know eder."

"One is sixteen," Peter said, not listening to the Gungan. "the other is seventeen."

"Old enough to be my daughters." Steven added.

"Mesa no care'n," the old Gungan spat. "all'n youse goin' to be stoned tonight."

The old Gungan opened the cell and threw in both girls, one landed on the floor while the other tripped and fell against the bars. When the old Gungan turned around, Peter got up and walked over to the side of his and his male friends cell. Sue crawled over to him and hugged him tight.

"What are you doing here?" Peter asked.

"You alright?" Steven asked, pushing Peter to the side.

"Ang... I mean Abi is up and is gonna get us out of here." Lauren said quickly in a whisper.

"Who?" Peter asked.

Knowing that the two you ones were safe at the moment in a cell, Angel moved slowly from her position, when the Captain walked past her she fought the urge to run forward and grab him in a deep hug. Instead she walked next to him until the bushes started thinning out. The tall, robust Gungan that had been left standing at the tree had moved off and was now standing up on another, shorter, stone face. His robe was flowing back gently in the slight breeze, Angel couldn't see his face well but when the moon had peaked out from behind the trees she had detected a sinister smile on his face, it made her spine shiver. When the Captain got up to the buried man the robed Gungan spoke.

"Ladies and gentleman," the Gungan bellowed. "I bring to you a hunter that not only brought fire to our camp but also attempted to take one of ours from her parents. He's been holed up in our cells for near two weeks now but the time has come to teach him a lesson that he won't forget even in the afterlife."

"I swear if I had a gun I'd blast you Nass!" the downed man yelled.

"Gather all the rocks you need," the Gungan said, eying the man hotly. "I'd prefer big and heavy rocks but take what you can handle and get ready to throw."

Angel had caught a name by the man that had been buried up to his shoulders, it made her wonder who was really on the stone face. Moving slowly past the bushes, ducking not to be seen, she moved right up next to a female Gungan who was stooped down collecting some medium sized jagged edged rocks. Before she could move another inch, the Captain placed his fingers to his lips and let out a shrill whistle. Everyone that had rocks in their hands starting throwing rocks at the exposed head and shoulders of the man that was buried.

"That all you can do!" the man yelled. "Come gimmee all ya got you barbaric slime balls!"

Looking away, disgusted, Beth couldn't take seeing what she was looking at anymore. She started counting, hoping that she'd get her signal from her leader to advance forward. She had heard the verdict of why the man that had been buried up to his shoulders was being stoned and she didn't blame the creatures, she figured it was a righteous punishment for both hunting their people and trying to abduct a youngster from her tent and from her parents.

"Ish dat... all you can douh..." the man said, weakening.

Ten minutes, that was all it took, ten minutes of stone throwing and the man stumped forward. The Captain walked forward and checked him, when he stood up he nodded his head, the man was dead. Another Gungan walked forward and dug the man out of the grave, he dragged his lifeless body away into the bushes where she figured he was just going to be thrown into a body of water, there was a lake twenty feet away from the Gungans. Another Gungan, a bit short than the Captain, walked past the Captain then headed to the cells, he was gone for all of five minutes before returning, he had a hard grip on Peter's upper arm and was dragging him behind him, not paying attention to his calls.

"Get ready Beth," Angel thought. "as soon as he's in the hole we defend."

They had heard the noise and had heard Patrick yell out but that was all, really none of them had wanted to see what was happening to him. A few minutes had passed then the Gungan that had gone past their cell a few times, a Gungan named Spleed Nukkels, walked towards them fast. He had opened Steven and his friends cell and had walked in, Peter had been the closest to him so he had grabbed him tightly and pulled him out, Vinny couldn't do much as he was very weak and Steven tripped, Sue and Lauren yelled out for him to leave Peter alone but it all fallen on deaf ears. The Gungan practically dragged Peter from the cell and past the bushes, away from them. Steven closed his eyes, he felt a tear fall down his cheek.

"Oh my God no!" Pam thought to herself. "Not Peter!"

Sure, Peter was annoying at times but she didn't like the idea of him having to go through what that poor man had that had gotten stoned. She had no weapon in her hands and was afraid that whatever Angel was going to do would be done too late to help her friend, she hadn't gotten a sign from Angel to do anything yet. Wanting to cry she waited and she prayed that her leader would hurry up and give the signal so that her friend could be saved a horrible stoning fate.

Peter fought hard and was begging a lot, when he got to a hole in the ground he just dropped down to his knees and refused to budge. The old Gungan with the status of Captain walked forward with a frustrated sigh and, to his surprise, picked him up by his waist and dropped him into the hole. Not wanting to stay in the hole he stood up and tried to get out, a shovel was slammed into his back by a Gungan behind him, it made him want to fall but he fought it and continued to try to get out of the hole. The statused Gungan growled then kicked him in the face, he fell back to his knees and placed his hand to his face, he both felt and tasted blood in his mouth. Before he could move again he felt dirt being shoveled in on him, it was up to his waist before he could stand.

"My name is Peter Barringer," he yelled. "I'm a teacher at Tri-Chester High, I mean you guys no harm please don't harm me!"

"This human," the tall, robust Gungan started. "was found with a group near Lake Paonga. They claimed to be safe but as we all know no human can be trusted! He along with all of his group will be stoned tonight!"

Angel had brought no real weapons with her except for a small flare gun, she reached for it slowly and pointed it up, away from the Gungans. Her signal would be simple, there would be no fighting or violence, just her speaking and her friends being released unharmed.

"Raise up your rocks," the robust Gungan yelled. "get ready to throw!"

The Captain raised his hand up when all the Gungans around Peter had collected handfuls of rocks, bunching her muscles up, raising her hand up with the gun, before the Captain could lower his hand and before the Gungans could start throwing rocks at her friend, she pushed the trigger of her flare gun and a bright orange blast flew up into the night sky.

"Whatsa dis?" the robust Gungan yelled, surprised.

"I'd like to speak to the leader of you fine people. "Angel said, standing upright painfully.

Pam and Andrea, who had been watching everything that was happening in the creatures camp from a branch on a tree ten feet above the ground, They moved forward slowly, Beth had already stood up and was walking towards Angel. Angel was having a difficult time standing upright, Andrea could see that she was in a lot of pain and was struggling to not fall down. The female creature that had been right beside her had jumped up in the air and moved off quickly when the flare gun had been shot. The tall, robust creature standing up on the medium sized stone face had been surrounded by guards when the shot had fired, they were all weilding pointed poles at her leader.

"Whattin' yousa wantin'? the tall, robust creature bellowed.

"We're both reasonable people," Angel said. "you seem like a nice fellow, very proud and all. What's been going on on this island I hate seeing, the ones that you have in your cell are indeed innocent victims that you've caught and that deserve none of this punishment, please can you release them..."

Beth had reached Angel at the time the tall, robust creature interrupted her with a loud laugh. He laughed so loud that the birds in the trees flew off crying in fear. When Angel felt Beth's hand on her shoulder she turned to her slowly, said a few words, then moved a foot away from her. Pam and Andrea were ten feet away from Angel and Beth when the tall, robust creature stopped laughing and turned towards all of them menacingly.

"Yousa comin' to mesa island destroyin' our city, stealin' and scarin' my people an' killin' mesa people and expectin' me to let yousa go," the creature yelled. "my no tink so. Mesa tinkin' all'n youse goin' be crunched!"

"Sir please believe me we do not mean you or your people any harm," Angel said, not flinching an inch. "if we did we would not have come unarmed."

"Den whatsa is dat in yousa hand?" the creature sneered. "Dat lookin' like un of dose firin' guns yousa people use."

Angel raised the flare gun up high, all the creatures around Peter moved away in gasps of horror. With a quick throw, she tossed the gun down in plain view of the tall, robust creature. After she did that she undid her belt and threw that down next to the gun, she staggered twice after that and near fell down to the ground but fought hard and stood up straight, Beth had taken one step towards her then stopped, her eyes were on the tall, robust creature that was surrounded by angry guards.

"No weapons on me," Angel said. "not a one, you can check for yourself I am vulnerable totally to you people."

The creatures were all talking now, lots of mumbling reached her ears, Pam couldn't tell if it was a good thing or bad. The tall, robust creature had turned to a tall, purple skinned male of the same species and was speaking to him, when he finished the creature walked forward, toward Angel. Before either she, Beth or Andrea could react, the creature grabbed their leader and started running his hands up and down her body, patting her to make sure she was truly unarmed.

"Shesa not a-carryin' anyting on hersa." the purple skinned creature said to the tall, robust creature.

"Whosa are yousa?" the tall, robust creature asked

"Name's Abigail Sloccum," Pam's leader answered. "leader, racer and friend."

"Yousa ain't no friend of mine." the creature said back. "An' yousa will never be a friend of mine!"

The creature was standing tall, his fingers in his hands were in claw positions, now whenever he spoke he'd bring a hand up and would open his mouth in a snarl. Beth was now beside Angel, her leader was having a really hard time standing upright. Wrapping an arm around the waist of her friend, Beth held her up gently. The creatures around Peter were all still mumbling, still talking. Turning her head slightly, Beth looked at her friend closely, what she saw she did not like.

"Please, if you wish to punish someone do it to me." her friend said. "I'm the leader of this group of misfits, it's my fault we are here, I'm responsible for their well being. Punish me, let them go, I won't fight or put up a fuss. I'll go quietly."

"Are you insane Abi?" Beth whispered to her leader.

"Hush!" Angel hissed at her. "Take me, leave them."

The tall, robust creature looked down at them, Beth felt a cold shiver run down her spine. Peter had stopped speakign and was looking up at Angel almost beggingly. Beth wished that she could just go to him and get him up out of the hole but she was afraid to budge. The purple skinned creature that had patted Angel down had stepped off to the side but was within striking distance of her. Tightening her hold on Angel, not wanting to let her go, Beth hoped that whatever the tall, robust creature was thinking would be good instead of bad. Before the creature could say anything Jar Jar, surprisingly, stepped out from the crowd.

"They speak the truth," Jar Jar said, a hint of fear in his voice. "this group would not hurt us."

The atmospher had changed, the creatures were now talking loudly, Beth could hear a few words now clearly. The tall, robust creature on the stone face was taken back by Jar Jar stepping forward, the look on his face was pure surprise. It didn't stay there for long before he got real mad.

"Jar Jar Binks," the creature yelled. "you traitorous boom-hey! These humans mean nothing but trouble, their words mean nothing to me, they are lies, they are..."

"This red headed human saved me!" Jar Jar said, fear creeping into his voice. "If it wasn't for her firing her firing thing at the hunters that were following me I would not be here. She's injured because she was protecting me."

The crowd had grown quiet now, everyone was looking at Jar Jar. Angel had gone totally quiet, she now had her left hand on Beth's arm. The tall, robust creature was looking down at them with hate, with anger, he had fire in his eyes. Glancing behind her once, Beth saw that Pam and Andrea were both fighting fear, they both looked like they wanted to huddle together.

"I'll let these humans go on one condition," the tall, robust creature said, sighing. "they must never show their faces, any of them, near any of my people again! If I see any of this group of humans again there will be no talking. There will be punishing and lots of it! Let all go in the cells!"


	6. Chapter 6

A week ago, it was still fresh in her mind. Young Sue couldn't believe that she had been thrown in a cell by a man two feet some inches taller than herself. She and Lauren were still talking about it, Wendy had been in bed at the time on the ship and had not known what had happened but after she had woke up she had had it all told to her by them. Angel had led her formerly captured friends back to the boat, it had been a fast trip and a costly one because once Angel's horse had set foot on the deck of their ship she had fallen out of her saddle.

Andrea had been taking as good of care of Angel the whole week, she had barely said three words to Sue and Lauren but had been speaking a lot to Wendy. Sue had overheard Andrea telling Wendy that Angel wanted her to continue acting her while since she couldn't at the time. Wendy had said she would and for the past week if she went out she wore contact lenses that made her eyes turn green.

"Hey Wendy," Sue said, walking up and patting her friend on the shoulder. "what's up?"

"Freaking out," Wendy said. "Andrea wants me to go to the creatures camp and ask if we can get some medicine for Angel."

Go back to the creatures camp, Sue's mind stopped and she started breathing hard. The creatures leader had said for them to not return on threat of punishment, whatever that was she did not know. Hugging her friend, she ran down the hallway towards Andrea's cabin. When she got there she flung open the door and entered quickly.

"Is it true," Sue asked, almost out of air. "that you've asked Wendy to go to the creatures camp for medicine?"

Andrea had been sitting in a chair which she had pulled up clsoe to a table, on the table was a journel that she had started weeks ago. Sue was sure that she had written down every animal that they had encountered in the journel, including the humanoid creatures that had threatened them. Andrea was wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans, there was nothing on her feet, her hair was up in a bun. When she heard Sue she turned around quickly, her pen dropped to the floor and her journel moved a few inches on her desk.

"Can you knock before you enter next time!" Andrea exclaimed. "Near gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry," Sue apologized. "is it true that you're sending Wendy to the creatures camp for medical supplies?"

"The creatures are called Gungans," Andrea said. "and yes I asked her to, Angel will not make it if we don't."

"I thought Angel was getting better," Sue said, surprised. "what's wrong with her and don't you remember if we come anywhere near those creat... I mean Gungans or are seen by those Gungans we'll be punished?"

Andrea stood up slowly, she picked her pen up and placed it on the table then walked off to her cabinet. Since she was the doctor and a biologist she had been given a few extra things in her room.

"I'm aware of it," Andrea said, her voice a little shaky. "but I'd much rather chance it than have our leader die."

Peter had been right vocal when he had found out that he, along with Steven, would be joining her on the trip to the Gungan's camp, he was still vocal about the slow way the Gungans had dug him up out of the hole that they had forced him into and how the statused Gungan had grabbed him by his shoulders and heaved him up roughly then shoved him away towards the forest. He was right bruised from that Gungan man handling him, his upper arm was black and blue and his face was badly bruised from when the statused Gungan had kicked him, his back was a little better but it was also bruised from when a shovel was slammed into it when he had tried to climb out of the hole.

"I will not be going into that camp!" Peter exclaimed. "You guys can go risk your necks against them Gungans I won't!"

"Shut up Peter," Steven said with a growl. "this is for Angel remember."

"I know it is but I still don't want to enter that camp with all them angry faced Gungans that like stoning humans..."

"You do know that they were not stoning you without a reason right?" Steven interrupted Peter. "If these other humans weren't here hunting, killing and kidnapping their people we'd of been left alone."

"I know that asshole!" Peter exclaimed loudly. "But still I don't want to enter that camp, one time being buried up to my neck in dirt is enough thank you very much."

Wendy was riding up a little a head of her ground, she, too, did not like returning to the Gungan camp. After being captured, chased by the Gungans and then witnessing them kill a member of her ground didn't put them in good light for her. Luckily for her all she had suffered from her run from the Gungans was shock, she had been carried to the ship by Beth and put to bed and slept for hours before waking up, when she had the ship was moving and Angel was up and about, getting ready to go rescue the rest of her group that she had left behind.

Steven was behind Wendy and a little a head of Peter, his ankle wasn't healed all the way, he was still limping and his ankle stung a lot whenever he tried to put any of his weight on it but he was toughing it out. Jonathan was still not himself after being captured, Angel had had to slap him around a few times then she had knocked him out when he had started repeating over and over again "thought we were gonna die". Vinny was also not himself fully, his inhaler had not been returned to him when they had been released and he only had one left, he was using it as sparingly as he could.

"Why just us three again?" Peter asked.

"That way the Gungans don't feel intimidated." Steven said with a sigh.

"Intimidated by us?" Peter exclaimed. "You have to be kidding me! They stand at least two feet taller than all of us and are stronger..."

"Shut up man," Steven sighed. "lets try not to make problems with the Gungans."

"Make problems for them!" Peter yelled. "So what happens if they make problems with us? We have no weapons to protect ourselves..."

"Andrea's orders man," Steven said, he was getting aggitated. "no weapons, no trouble."

No weapons, no trouble, better said than done. Wendy pushed her horse to a clearing and stopped cold. Sitting in front of her, on two legged orange mounts, were two Gungans. Steven and Peter walked into her and were about to say something but when they saw the Gungans they fell quiet. The two Gungans took one look at them then urged their mounts forward at a trot. Wendy wanted to pull her horse around and run away but she had to stay put, she had to act as leader.

"Hello there," she called to the Gungans. "may we speak to you two please?"

"Yousa all comin' wit us." an orange skinned Gungan said.

"Yessir!" Wendy said, swallowing hte lump in her throat. "We need to speak to your leader most badly."

Both of the Gungans, young men Steven guessed, positioned themselves on both sides of their ground, they gestured for Peter to get inbetween him and Wendy, when Peter didn't one rode back and forced him up into position. Peter was shaking badly, the two Gungans hadn't noticed but Steven knew they would shortly. Wendy at first wanted to move Peter to the side of her so she could ride in the middle but after seeing how he was reacting she chose to remain where she was. Nudging her horse on, she followed alongside the Gungan that was one step in front of her.

The first time entering the Gungan camp wasn't pleasant, the second time was a terror, this time she felt like the whole camp was going to run out at her. They had passed through a hallway with two stone faces on either side of the doorways, the whole camp was littered with stone heads and faces, there were yellow colored stairways and walls that shone brightly when the sun hit them. There were tents all over the place, when they were marched past many Gungans ran out of the tents, three children ran past them, checking them out the whole time. When they passed a spot where it looked like a bunch of Gungans had seated themselves down for a meal all hell broke loose.

"More humans to take away my business!"

Most of the Gungans she had seen were tall and slim in size, the one that rushed out at her with a rather large ladle was huge! His arms bulged out big, his stomach bulged a little low, the guy had the biggest legs she had ever seen, it almost made him look funny. Over the Gungans clothing, the normal brown shirt that had a triangle cut under the collar bone and blue pants, was a white apron with a white chef's hat on his head behind his eye stalks. Wendy guessed that either he was the cook for the whole camp or he was running some sort of restaraunt in the camp. The Gungan beside her moved his mount closer to hers, shielding her from the immense Gungan weilding the ladle.

"We shouldn't have come back..." Wendy thought to herself. "This was a big mistake."

Peter was beside himself with fear, his horse had started sweating real bad and wasn't walking forward. The Gungan in front of him had made a loud sigh then reached over for his reins. There had been a small fight between them, Peter's hands had clinched the reins tightly, then the reins had been handed over. With his horse now in control of the green skinned Gungan beside him Peter started to shiver, it started slightly then got violent.

"Hey! Hey human!" the Gungan exclaimed. "What are you sick or something? Quit shaking!"

"Wilk!" the orange skinned Gungan beside Wendy exclaimed. "We're not suppose to speak in that way to humans."

"Sorry, I forgot." the Gungan named Wilk said.

"You forget too much..." the orange skinned Gungan exclaimed.

"Enough you two!"

Steven had been reaching over to Peter to offer some sort of comfort when the old Gungan with the high military status had walked forward. He was not riding a mount but instead on the ground walking towards them. He looked tired, his eyes looked bloodshot and he was walking with a limp. Not thinking about it, Steven dismounted and walked towards the Gungan, who had stopped dead in his tracks.

"Ya look injured there friend," Steven said, he was surprised at himself for calling the Gungan 'friend'. The old Gungan was equally surprised, he was looking at Steven like he had grown a second head.

"You speaking to me human?" the Gungan asked. "You're no friend of mine."

"Yes I'm speaking to you," Steven said, slightly annoyed. "you're limping and look right tired..."

"Yeah I am," the Gungan hissed. "what's it to you?"

"Just wondering," Steven replied. "us older folk need to stick together."

That had not been what he wanted to come through his lips, the Gungan was looking at him angrily, offended, now, both of his haillu were raised. Placing his hands up quickly, Steven backed up two steps before speaking again.

"I mean, us mid aged fellas need to..." he started to say before he was interrupted.

"Lets get something straight here, friend," the Gungan said, putting imphasis on the friend. "I'm tired, not injured and I am not nor will ever be your huggy happy-go-lucky friend got me?"

"Okay okay," Steven said quickly. "calm down there pah... buh... I'm just going to back up now."

Wendy chuckled a little, seeing her teacher try to make friends with the old Gungan and fail was kind of funny to her. Steven walked back to his horse, but did not mount up, instead he just stood by his mount and waited for her to move forward. She did so after glancing over at Peter. Peter had grown pale now, he looked sickly. The Gungan beside him, the one called Wilk, had one of his hands on his shoulder, he was trying to calm him down some but was, himself, failing at it. The old Gungan in front of them took a step forward then turned around and gestured for them to follow him. They passed by many, still angry, Gungans before they got to a stairway where the Gungans leader, along with two other Gungans, was standing.

"Your honor," the old Gungan said, bowing. "these humans have returned."

The leader looked at them in both shock and pure anger, Wendy felt a cold shiver run down her spine and wanted to turn back but she felt she had to be here, if not for proving to her teachers that she was able to be a leader then to help her leader out. The Gungan on the stairs walked down two steps then stopped, before he could say anything Peter dropped.

"Look out," Wilk laughed. "downed human."

"Not funny!" Wendy thought.

Peter hadn't just fallen from his horse, he had nearly pulled Wilks with him. Steven quickly left his horses side and kneeled down beside his friend, Peter was extremely white and was drenched in sweat. Thinking fast, Steven unbuttoned his friends shirt half way then ran to his horse where he got the water canteen, he wasn't paying attention to the Gungans, he was working too hard on helping his friend.

"You're alright buddy," Steven said, tilting his friends head back and putting the canteen to his lips. "a bit strange at times but alright."

Peter at first didn't drink any of the water, it just fell past his lips to the back of his neck. The second time he offered the canteen to his friend he drank. Peter's eyes, which had been closed the whole time, were not fluttering open slowly. He shook his head a little then slowly, very slowly, sat up.

"I'm okay," Peter said shakily. "I'm okay."

Not one second after that had left his lips he doubled over and vomitted, the Gungans all around Steven, Wendy and Peter had moved off, there was a lot of non-hushed talking going on between all of them. The leader of the Gungans was standing on the stairs looking down at them in disgust. After Peter had his vomitting fit he flopped over on his side and started shaking, badly. Wendy dismounted quickly and went to him, she totally forgot about the Gungans.

"A stick!" Steven exclaimed. "Abi get me a stick he's having a seisure!"

Wendy knew all too well about seisures, her mother had them right bad, as had her grandmother. Rushing off into the bushes, she retrieved a thick stick, before she ran back she quickly tore off the small twigs that were on it. When she ran back to the Gungan camp she near stopped in shock. Kneeling down beside Peter, assisting Steven with keeping Peter calm, was the old Gungan.

"Where's that stick Abi!" Steven yelled.

"Right here!"

Surprisingly it wasn't Steven that reached for the stick, it was the old Gungan. Steven had just glanced at the Gungan once then went back to tending Peter, he was trying to get his mouth open. Froth was coming out of Peter's mouth and so was blood, Steven tried putting his finger in Peter's mouth but couldn't. Cursing, he reached for what looked to be a spoon to his far right, reacting fast he put it in his friends mouth and slowly pushed down, when his friends mouth was open the old Gungan put the stick in. When Steven let the spoon go his friend chomped down on the stick hard, he was glad that Wendy had gotten a thick stick because anything less thicker than the one she had given him would have been chomped in two pieces. The Gungan that was helping him had Peter's head between his hands, he was steadying his friend's head. Wendy had Peter's legs, she was holding them tightly together so he wouldn't kick out.

"Hang in there bud," Steven said to his friend. "we gotcha back just hang in there."

"It should be over in a few minutes," Wendy said to Steven. "he'll stop shaking then will be a bit disoriented for a few hours. We need to get him back to the ship."

Wendy was absolutely right, Peter stopped shaking a few minutes later and calmed down, when he did so Steven gently pushed the old Gungan to the side and heaved him up, he nearly carried him to his horse and just slung him over the saddle, he climbed up behind him and started back. Wendy followed and, surprisingly, so did the old Gungan and the two Gungans that had escorted them to the camp, no one called the three Gungans back.

Andrea was on deck when she saw her friends racing out of the forest, at first she thought that they were being chased because of the two Gungans behind them but then changed her mind when she saw Peter draped over Steven's horse.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Get some medicine for Peter," Steven exclaimed. "he had a seizure and needs something to further calm him down!"

Andrea rushed below deck to a small cabin that they called the 'hospital room' and grabbed a bottle of Abilify pills, when she returned to the deck Steven was pulling Peter off of the saddle and Wendy was dismounting, one of the two Gungans that had been following them from behind were also dismounting. Before she could get to Peter one of the Gungans walked forward and threw his arm around Peter's waist and helped Steven walk him down below deck, Andrea took one look at the other Gungan who was still on his mount then followed. They were near Peter's cabin when the Gungan that they had left behind came rushing up in a panic.

"Wilk!" the Gungan exclaimed. "We should not be here, we should head back now!"

"He needs help Tub Tub," Wilk said, turning his head slightly back. "we can't just leave without..."

"Captain Tarpals is going to be pissed!" Tub Tub exclaimed. "He was shouting for us to come back and we didn't, we're gonna get it when we get back to the camp if we don't go back now!"

Steven didn't open the door to Peter's room, neither did Andrea or the Gungan that was helping Steven carry Peter to his room. Steven kicked his leg up and crashed it into the door, the hinges broke and the door slammed hard against the wall. Going in first, Steven led both Peter and the Gungan to his bedside. When they got there he sat down, the Gungan slid his arm from around Peter's waist then backed up. Andrea gently pushed past him and went to her friend, she took the cap off of the bottle and took out one pill, Peter was half awake, when he saw the pill he took it, although shakily, and then swallowed it. Steven offered him some water but he shook his head.

"Thank you for helping." Andrea said to the Gungan.

"Not a problem," the Gungan replied. "I figured that it'd be best for me..."

"We need to get back now!"

The other Gungan lunged at the Gungan that had helped Steven carry Peter to his room and wrapped his arms around his waist, he pulled hard and had the other Gungan out of the room before the other Gungan turned on him. The Gungan named Wilk flattened the one named Tub Tub to the ground and kicked him in the face.

"Cool it!" Wilk exclaimed. "If that so-called Captain has a problem with me helping them then he can personally say it to me. You go back I'm staying for a little while."

Tub Tub stood up slowly, gave Wilk a horrified look then took off down the hallway to the deck, when he got to his Kaadu he jumped up, turning his mount as he was doing so, then tore down the trail to his camp. Wilk had always been one to go beyond protocol, he never wanted to do what he was suppose to and that scared him, he was his friend and had been since he was in school, he feared that if he continued the path he was going with the humans on the craft he'd end up in a cell headed someplace else where the humans meant for their people to be made into slaves.

"Need to get the Captain," Tub Tub thought frantically. "need to get him then get Wilk!"

He and Wilk were freshly out of training, the Captain had been their teacher and was still their teacher, he was a very respected and highly regarded Gungan. Digging his heels into his Kaadu's sides, he pushed his mount hard to hurry up. His mount was a young one, about tens years of age, with lots of energy. Tub Tub barely felt the branches hit him, it was only ten minutes after he had rushed from the craft that the humans were on when he raced into his camp.

"Captain!" he yelled. "Captain Tarpals they got him!"

Since the door to Peter's room was now broken everyone who walked past his room could see that Peter was now sleeping in his bed on his side, the Abilify had worked wonders, he had stopped jerking and shivering and his eyes had stopped darting all over the place. The Gungan that had stayed behind, the one named Wilk, was now walking around the ship looking at things with much curiousity.

"He's heading towards Angel's cabin." Steven whispered to Andrea.

"I know," Andrea replied. "might be a good thing that he sees her, that way he can go back and say what he saw and bring some medicine back for her."

"He seems right young," Steven said in a low whisper. "maybe twenty or twenty-two years at best."

"The other one with him looked the same age." Andrea said. "What's his name again?"

"The one that left in a hurry said the name Wilk a lot," Steven whispered back, he had one of his eyes on the Gungan walking down the hall. "so that must be his name."

Wendy walked around the corner, she had decided to take the horses down to the animal section of the ship when Steven and the Gungan had taken Peter down to Peter's cabin. She wasn't as enthusiastic about the Gungan that remain on board like Steven and Andrea were, She had heard the fighting from the two Gungans from the animal pens, they had been loud and from what she had heard it seemed that they had also gotten physical. Stopping in her tracks as soon as she saw the Gungan walking down the hallway, she wondered why Steven and Andrea were just standing there, talking. The Gungan was peaking into each cabin, slowly opening each door and looking inside then closing the door behind him. The cabin he was going to now was the one her leader was resting in, she wondered how this was going to end up.

"I hope Angel is awake," Wendy thought. "I wonder what will happen when he sees her in her state."

The Gungan took three steps then stopped in front of Angel's door, he looked around then reached his hand out and grabbed the doorknob. With a slow turn he opened the door and looked in. Wendy couldn't see what was happening, if Angel was awake or not, but she knew that something must have caught the Gungan's attention, he stood there for the longest time before taking one, cautious, step in the cabin.

The first thing he saw in the small room in the craft was the pale human in the bed, she turned her head towards him and when her eyes met his his mouth dropped slightly. The human in the bed who was as pale as could be had the greenest of eyes he had ever seen, they were emerald green and bright not dull or clouded.

"Come to me..." the human whispered. "please, come here."

Wilk took one step forward then stopped, the window in the room was open and the wind that blew through brought with it the smell of injury. He sniffed the air twice then took a few more steps in, his stalked eyes craned high to see the human. At first he thought that the human, because of her eye color, was the missing daughter of Nass but after seeing her hair color his curiousity ended. The humans hair was greasy and dull in color. Shaking his head, he turned around and was about to walk out of the room when the male human that he had helped bring the human that he had called Peter back to the craft walked into the room.

"She's our leader," the human said. "currently badly injured and in bad need of medication."

"She looks in bad shape," Wilk said, almost in a whisper. "very unique and unusual eyes."

"Yes she had some of the most beautiful shade of green eyes I've ever seen as well." the man said.

"From the looks of her she won't last the week." Wilk sighed. "I'm sorry."

Andrea stepped in beside Wilk, she placed her hand on his shoulder and very lightly pulled him out of the room. When she had him out she stood in front of him and stared at him intently, he had light green skin with a milky yellow undertone and dark orange eyes. He looked at her once then looked away quickly.

"We need medicine," Andrea said to Wilk slowly. "can you help us get some? If we don't get some medicine into her she's going to die."

"I'm afraid I can't help," Wilk sighed. "the medicine we have is for our people only, I'd be in big trouble if I brought some to you."

"Please..." Wendy said, walking up. "please help us, we are nothing without her if she dies we all die with her."

"I can't help," Wilk repeated, sliding to the side a bit. "I can't allow..."

"Pleeeeeeeaaaaaaase!"

Turning his head to the side, Wilk saw a young human, probably no older than 15 years, step out of a room. She looked at him with large, very expressive dark eyes. He felt a heavy burden on him so with a heavy sigh he slumped back, defeated.

"I'll bring you what I can," he said. "don't expect any kind of life debt from me though."

"We don't expect anything back," Andrea said, placing her hand on his shoulder. "we'll leave you guys alone afterwards I promise."


	7. Chapter 7

Riding his Kaadu slowly, Wilk thought to himself how he was going to pull off getting medicine for the human that was sick. He knew that if he said right off that he was going to take it to the human he wouldn't get the medicine and he would be locked up in jail for treason. The Captain would not like him taking medicine to a human and neither would Boss Nass. Sighing hard, sliding his foot against his Kaadu's side, he walked slowly to his camp, thinking the whole time. He thought at first he would just pay for medicine saying his mother was ill but that would be caught quick since his mother worked for Brass Marshoo as a waitress everyday. The next thing that came to mind was similar, say he was buying medicine for his father who was sick but that, too, would be picked up fast since he was one of the Gungans that guarded Boss Nass's family whenever one or more went out for a walk or something.

"Why not buy some for yourself?" Wilk thought. "Say that the medicine in your pack is low and you need some."

It was a decent idea, not a great one but a decent one. His pack was full with medical supplies in case he got a bad cut or was grazed by one of the humans bullets, if he was going to do this he'd have to put out a good front, something of which he was rather good at. Digging his heels into his Kaadu's sides, he raced towards his camp. his Kaadu threw her head up and grunted, at times she could be a little stubborn and since she was new to him they hadn't had a chance to figure each other out. Pulling the reins hard to the side, Wilk pushed his mount on. When he reached a clearing he stopped. He didn't have to make the call for someone to come to him because standing in front of him were three Gungans, one on Kaadu the other two on foot.

"You're alive!" one called out, surprised.

"You escaped," another called, side glancing the Gungan that had said 'you're alive'. "the Captain is about to send out a rescue party for you."

"Yes I escaped," Wilk said, swallowing once. "nothing to it since a majority of that group are female."

"Better go tell the Captain to not send the party out." the Gungan on the Kaadu said.

Nudging his Kaadu on, walking past the three Gungans, Wilk's mind ran a mile a minute. He wondered now how he was going to get the medicine to the humans, he couldn't just go out after purchasing it, that would be very suspitious. Thinking hard, remembering how bad the human with the green eyes had been, he figured it would be best to wait until darkness had fallen before he went out to give them what they had begged him so much for.

Dismounting his Kaadu once he was in camp, he tied the reins to a post then walked away towards a small group of Gungans. He could see that the Captain was in the center of the group talking, he had an electropole in his hand and was flinging it from one hand to the other. Sighing hard, he walked into the group.

"No need to send out a patrol for me," Wilk said, standing straight. "I'm back and fine."

The whole group turned to him and eyed him, the Captain took one step then signaled for all of them to leave. Wilk stepped to the side but the Captain gave him a look so he stayed put. The Captain wasn't looking as perky as he had a few days ago, their camp had been attacked twice in one week by ten humans each attack, he had fought in both attacks very hard, his Kaadu had gotten injured bad and was currently staying in a pen with the other injured animals.

"Tub Tub said you were captured," the Captain said, he was now leaning up against the electropole. "how did you escape?"

"The group is nothing but females with very few men," Wilk said. "and they have no leader so they are a bit disorganized."

"No leader," the Captain said, eying him. "what do you mean no leader, they had a leader the last time they were here."

"Must have gotten sick and died sir." Wilk lied. "there was a yellow haired human that was trying to take control of them but they were not having it, they were fighting like crazy amongst themselves."

"How many females were in the group?" the Captain asked.

"I counted six sir," Wilk replied. "and four males."

"This is new with the humans," the Captain said, he turned his head and looked at the forest. "it's usually just the men that come to our island not the women."

"You think they may be trying a new approach sir?" Wilk asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

"I need to speak to Boss Nass about this new development," the Captain said, he started to walk off. "as you were."

The Captain walked off toward Boss Nass's family's camp, Boss Nass had moved all of his people to the Sacred Place after Otoh Gunga had been attacked one night when everyone had been sleeping. There had been a few casualties and a bunch of injuries, but the population had been moved successfully. The Captain was walking with a limp, he had been injured during one of the attacks on their camp and had been resting in his tent when another attack the next day had occured, he had not gotten any sleep in three nights.

"Better get that medicine now," Wilk though to himself. "then I'll wait until night fall before I go take it to them humans."

The smell of boiled Eels was enough to make him want to forget about getting the medicine, he was hungry, he hadn't had anything to eat since early morning and it was mid afternoon now. Taking a deep breath, he passed Brass Marshoo's area of business and continued to the shop area. At first when Brass Marshoo had set up his small restaurant he and a bunch of others had seen it as disrespect to the ones that had gotten injured and had died in Otoh Gunga, then after a few days they had cooled down. The Captain had figured it a good idea since everyone in the camp needed to be fed, he wasn't too keen on Marshoo charging everyone a small fee though when they had come in to eat his food. The business section of the camp was another area that they were not happy about, there were vendors parked all over in the center of the camp charging small to medium prices for jsut about anything. Clothes, jewelry and medical supplies. He headed to the vendor that sold medical supplies.

"Hello Mr. Nilkers, what can I get for you?" the vendor, a pretty female Gungan with yellowish orange skin, asked.

"The full pack," Wilk said. "my saddle pack is totally empty."

"Very good sir," the vendor said excitedly. "that's thirty-nine twenty-five."

Wilk payed the vendor and grabbed the pack, turning around, he headed to his Kaadu. Once again when he passed by Brass Marshoo's small restaurant he wanted to stop, the food just smelled wonderful. Shaking his head, he trudged on, when he got to his Kaadu he tied the pack to his saddle. When he was done a hand grabbed his shoulder and roughly turned him around.

"Boss Nass wishes to speak to you." Captain Tarpals said sternly.

He'd never really spoken to Boss Nass, he had seen him but had never spoken to him. Following the Captain, he wondered how speaking to the Boss was going to go. Would the Boss want him to repeat what he had said to the Captain then describe the humans situation or would he be in for a good tongue lashing. Boss Nass had ordered that all of the banished Gungans be told that it was okay to be brought back, all but one had returned and that had been Jar Jar Binks. When Jar Jar hadn't returned after a week of the order they had figured he had either perished in the forest or a group of human hunters had captured him, it had been no surprise when Boss Nass had no sent a patrol out to find him.

"Why does the Boss want to speak to me?" Wilk asked the Captain.

"He wants you to tell him personally what you saw." the Captain said, he turned his head to the side slightly.

The camp was made in three sections, section one was nothing but tents, it was the living quarters for everyone in the camp, section two was the vendor section, that included Brass Marshoo's small restaurant, that was the section everyone went if they wanted food or items that they needed to live on, the third section was were the pens were at that they were keeping their Kaadus, Falumpaset's and Fambaa's, Captain Tarpals' Kaadu was in one of the pens healing up and Boss Nass' Falumpaset was also in one of the pens, although for a different reason. They could not allow for the beasts to be running around camp so they had just built the pens for them to stay in. The small area to the side of the pens was where the cells were, they had six cells that they used for keeping Gungans that had stepped out of line and captured humans in. So far there had only been three Gungans that had been placed in the cells and that had been because they had freaked out after they had moved to the Sacred Place.

"Is this the one called Wilk, Captain?"

Looking up, he met eyes with the Boss, the leader and ruler of his people. Boss Nass was not wearing his robe today instead he was just wearing his normal clothes. He had on a large light fabric brown shirt with a triangle cut in the collar and brown pants of the same fabric and color, a light brown belt was around his waist. On Boss Nass' finger was a bright and beautiful ring, it was his family crest, it had two colors on it, blue and purplish red, there were several gems on it, he could see a lapis lazuli stone and a lace agate, he could just barely see the third stone but couldn't make out what it was.

"Yessir," the Captain said, saluting the Boss. "Wilk tell him what you told me."

The Boss stood right tall, but he was a few inches shorter than the Captain, his eyes were not as orange as the Captains but instead were a yellowish color.

"I was caught by two male humans and brought to a ship," he lied. "there were about four male humans on the ship while the rest were female."

"What impression did you get when you saw the females?" the Boss asked.

"Curious, honestly." Wilk said. "There's about six females in their group."

"Obviously the humans in that group have made plans to attempt to breed and colonize the island." the Boss said, almost to himself. "how far is the ship from us?"

"Pretty long ways sir," Wilk lied, they were really no more than a thirty minute walk from the camp. "they seem to headed away from us."

"Should I send a patrol out to destroy them sir?" the Captain asked Boss Nass.

"No, if they are headed away from us then they are no cause for alarm," Boss Nass replied. "at least not yet. Boy keep up the good work, you are dismissed."

Leaving the Captain and the Boss behind him, Wilk headed back to his Kaadu. Although he had said to himself that he was going to wait until night to take the medicine to the humans he figured he'd better do it now. Glancing back, he saw that the Captain was speaking to Boss Nass, the Boss had his hand on his shoulder and was nodding his head. Turning his head back forward, he walked more quickly away from the tree that Boss Nass and his family were staying in. He passed through the tented area of the camp then entered the vending part of the camp, he fought hunger hard the whole time he was walking. When he got to his Kaadu he quickly undid the reins from the post and jumped up into the saddle. Looking both ways, he turned his Kaadu and headed back the way he came.

"Think he just went to his camp and forgot about us?" Pam asked Andrea.

"I hope not," Andrea sighed. "I hope noh..."

"Of course he did dumbass!" Theresa exclaimed. "They want nothing to do with us hello!"

"As I was saying, I hope not. He's really our only hope for Angel being brought back to health." Andrea said, she glanced over at Theresa annoyingly.

Theresa Elder, a fifty-eight year old woman with brown hair that was graying some on the back, was leaning on the railing of the boat. She was wearng a purple blouse with white pants and white slip on shoes. Theresa and she were the oldest in their group, she was fifty-five years old, but of the two she was the most annoying because she thought she knew it all and she thought she had a say on just about everything. She was currently pestering Peter about the way he acted with Pam, currently she was standing beside Pam giving her heated glances. Both Pam and Peter were married, Peter had a five year old daughter while Pam had two young children aged between six and nine years of age.

"If he doesn't return by morning tomorrow we best just get ready to say our goodbyes to Angel." Andrea sighed.

"She should have known to bring more supplies on this trip," Theresa spat. "we are low in food and medical supplies not to mention guns and ammunition. If I was the leader I'd..."

"You're not the leader and you'll never be the leader!" Pam yelled. "Stop disrespecting Angel she did not know!"

Theresa really was what the younger members of the group called, a "Disrespecter". If someone did something that she did not like she'd get on that one person hard then continue speaking behind his or her back about it. Beth could not stand Theresa as she had gotten on her about over cleaning her guns one time then had gone all around the ship speaking about it. When Angel had gotten injured Theresa had been very vocal about tossing Jar Jar overboard, Angel had held fast to her decision on keeping him on the ship for a few days before she had collapsed in the hallway after exiting her cabin.

"I don't want to hear about Angel dying," Pam said, fear seeping into her voice. "not only would we miss her terribly so would everyone on the mainland."

"I don't want her to die either," Andrea sighed. "lets change the subject, lets speak of something else."

"You guys speak," Theresa said, a hint of disgust crawled into her voice. "I'm headed to my cabin."

When Theresa was gone Pam sat down on the floor of the deck of the ship and dangled her legs over the edge. Andrea figured that that was a good idea so she did the same. They were quiet for a few minutes before Pam spoke.

"I hope that when Angel gets better she gets Theresa under control," Pam said. "she is really getting on my nerves!"

"She's getting on my nerves too." Andrea said in agreement. "Is she still getting on Peter hard?"

"Yes, and she annoys me more than he does." Pam exclaimed.

"Peter will be able to get up out of bed tomorrow," Andrea said. "I hope he cools it with you."

"I can take him," Pam said, turning to Andrea slowly. "it's Theresa that I can't."

Placing her forehead on the railing, Andrea started praying. She prayed that Wilk would be able to help them and that he would return sooner rather than later and that the medicine he brought would help her leader, she also hoped that they would return home after that. She had no idea why Angel had decided to take them on this trip, she had been putting laundry away when her doorbell had been rung, Angel had sat her down on her couch and had asked her if she was willing to go on a trip with her and a few hand picked friends of hers. At first she had said no but then after twenty-four hours she had phoned her friend and said she would go with her.

"Please let him return," Andrea whispered to herself. "please please let him return with some medicine."

Pam was leaning over the rail, looking at the rippling water behind the rutter, she stared at it so long the water started to turn from blue to purple. She was so enthused in looking at the water that she barely heard the thuds.

"You hear that?" Andrea asked, when Pam looked up, puzzled, she repeated what she said.

"Sounds like..." Pam stopped the listen and think. "thudding?"

Andrea stood up and looked over the railing, at first she didn't see anything then, to her great surprise, Wilk came out of the bushes astride a very pretty mount. The anima he was riding had orange skin, its neck was long and its head looked somewhat similar to a horses only it was longer and had no ears.

"Wilk!" Andrea exclaimed.

"Got your medicine," Wilk yelled up at her. "I'll throw it to you."

"No let me lower the ramp so you can come up onboard." Andrea said, she turned around and raced to the lever. Grabbing it, she tugged hard to the left, the chains that lowered the ramp clacked loudly. When the ramp was down Wilk rode his animal up to the deck. The animal that Wilk was riding only had two legs, it seemed to of discarded its front legs and kept its back legs. The tail was short and sturdy looking. The head was what caught her attention though, long and duck-bill looking, the eyes of the animal were black while around the eyes was periwinkle.

"Most curious animal you have there." Andrea said, she did not know she had said anything to the Gungan.

Wilk dismounted quickly and untied a pack from his saddle, when he turned around he thrust it into Andrea's hands. Their eyes met only once before he jumped up in the saddle and turned his mount around. He was on his way down the ramp when he turned around.

"Must go now," he said. "yes my mount is interesting."

"What is it?" Andrea asked quickly. "Thank you for the medicine."

"Kaadu ma'am," Wilk replied. "you're welcome goodbye."

Theresa ran from her cabin to the deck quickly, night had fallen and she really wanted to see the small beetles that flew around. They were a pretty blue and green color with yellow eyes, when they were caught they would make a sound which she liked hearing, she compared it to the gentle musci from a Flute. I had been five days since the Gungan had given them the medicine to help their leader get well and it had done its trick. Angel wasn't just better, but she was up and about with a jump in her step. Everyone was happy that she was better.

"Come here pretty bug," she said to a beetle that had landed on the railing. "let me see you."

Cupping her hand around the beetle, she lifted it up. Putting her ear to her cupped hand she listened, the beetle was making the Flute sound. It sounded so peaceful she didn't want it to stop but, sadly, she had to make it stop. Uncupping her hand she let the beetle go. When another landed on the railing she did the same thing.

"They do make some interesting calls don't they?"

Turning around, Theresa saw her leader and estranged friend step out of the cockpit, Angel had a light blue blanket draped over her shoulders as it was chilly in the control room of the ship. Pushing herself away from the railing, she walked to the ladder and climbed up, when she was on the cockpit floor of the ship she grabbed her friend in a light hug, Angel patted her on the shoulder.

"Yes, they do." Theresa said. "Like a Flute."

"You should see the Purple Dragonflies this place has," Angel said. "those are pretty and trumpet when caught."

"No kidding?" Theresa exclaimed. "What else do you know about this island we don't know about?"

"Not kidding," Angel said, ignoring the rest of her sentence. "they have four wings."

"Sounds interesting." Theresa said. "What was that animal we saw today? The one that looked slightly like a turtle?"

"Shiro," Angel replied. "Andrea has one down in her cabin now. Like our native turtles they are slow moving, benign, hardshelled reptiles."

Angel, since she had been well, had been going out in the forest a lot lately. Peter and Steven had gone with her a few times, Angel was proving a better hunter than their only remaining professional hunter on the ship. She had brought back an odd, bluish purple colored spotty scaled, animal with six long legs and a bird-like head, it had had a row of projection-like crests that went from behind the head all the way down its neck and a very short almost stubby tail. So far since her leader had been well they had not had to eat noodles and hamburger meat for meals and had all gained a little in weight.

"How do you know the fauna here?" Theresa asked. "I mean, you knew what that thing was that you brought in and also the thing we saw today, how did you know what they were?"

"I didn't," Angel said. "I named them is all."

"You liar!" Theresa exclaimed. "What makes you think you have the right of naming an animal on this island?"

"First see first name." Angel said back before she turned around and headed back to the cockpit.

Being left on the cockpit's floor alone was enough to make Theresa shiver, it was here that Angel had seen Jar Jar running and being chased by his pursuers and it had also been where she had been injured. The medicine that had been given to her estranged friend had healed her wounds good but she had started to get a bit distant whenever asked a question about her knowing a specific thing about the island. Sighing loudly, she descended the ladder that she had climbed to get to the cockpit floor then went below deck where she saw Sue running around in a gown.

"Sue!" Theresa barked. "Either get in your cabin and go to sleep or get dressed and clear the floor in the kitchen."


	8. Chapter 8

"Gooooooood morning Island!" Peter yelled, small animals that had been feeding along the banks of the river jumped and ran away quick.

"Nice one Peter," Pam sighed. "now maybe you can put that back in your mouth so we, innocent humans are not attacked by those hunter humans."

"This my dear Pamela is where both you and me can set up a home together," Peter exclaimed. "where we can have babies together and live a happy life."

"Once again my dear Peter I am married and have two children that need me," Pam said. "I cannot be separated from my husband or children."

"Yes, you have a husband." Peter said, sliding towards her some. "A husband that leaves you for weeks on end."

"He's busy." Pam said, she turned around and started to walk away.

"Yeah he's busy," Peter yelled at her. "busy humping the ladies the next county over!"

Looking out, Peter knew exactly what was going to happen after everyone had finished breakfast. Angel had made the decision that she was going to lead a small group, which included him, to the Gungan camp. No one knew why but they did know that this time she was going to bring three weapons with her. She was going to bring her bow and arrows with her, a pair of knives and a pistol with her, everyone else was just going unarmed, and that made him nervous. He remembered the last time they had gone to the Gungan camp, he had fainted then had had a seizure.

"I hope I don't faint this time," Peter said to himself. "or have a seizure."

"So do I pal."

Steven was walking up from the kitchen area, he was wearing his usual, muscle shirt with blue jeans and sneakers. Peter nodded to him then turned around. He did not want to be reminded of what had happened at the Gungan camp, he felt he had made a fool of himself and had embarrassed his group.

"You scared us pretty bad bud," Steven said to his friend. "please this time control yourself. Angel's coming with us and you know her. All seriousness."

Hearing a noise behind them, they both turned around. Angel was leading horses from the animal pens under the ship to the deck. She had three horses with her, Scout and his half sister had raced back to the ship, Steven had just dropped the reins when the Gungans had attacked him and his friends, the other horse was the one that both men looked at keenly. The horse's name was Phantom and he was one of Angel's top studs at her farm, he had been put in stud three years ago and had sired many foals before Angel had decided to take him out of retirement for a few more races, he was currently both siring foals and racing at the same time, although in the latter he wasn't racing much anymore because every race he would be entered in he would have a lot of weight put on him.

"You're crazy woman!" Peter exclaimed. "Bringing your prized stallion on this trip and all."

"Thank you Peter," Angel said to him. "couldn't leave him behind so had to bring him."

The horse was not fat nor thin, he was very well muscled and was in good health, he tossed his white mane up and pawed the deck a few times before he stopped, his white tail swished from side to side. Angel had brought two stallions with her on the trip, her racing stallion and a Mustang that she had adopted, intact, from Oregon that she had named Sox.

"The horses are already saddled," Angel said. "when Vinny, Beth and Pam are up here we go."

"Pam's going with us?" Peter asked.

"Yes Peter," Angel replied. "Pam is coming with us."

Peter stood motionless, as much as he didn't want to go on the trip he really didn't want Pam to go with them. He could deal with Angel and Beth but Pam had no experience with fighting. Angel had disappeared from the deck after she had tied Phantom, Scout and Melanie to the railing, she had been gone for all of five minutes, when she returned she had two more horses and Pam was behind her leading a Mule.

"My Mule my Mule..." she was singing. "my love for a Mule."

"Enough Pam," Peter said with a sigh. "why does she have to come with us?"

"Because." Angel barked. "No more questons."

Pam looked funny on the Mule, he was shorter than the horses and was making them go slower than they wanted because he was being stubborn. The Mule had a bridle on but no saddle, it had been Pam's idea, she liked riding bareback. Looking down from his horse at her, Peter sighed again and reached down. Before Pam could shoo him away he grabbed the reins and led the animal on. The Mule was an oddball in color, where most Mules were a mouse brown in color this one was a roan with a dark stripe running down it's back, there was no marking on his face and no markings on his legs.

With Beth a head of him on Scout and Angel far in front of the group on Phantom, Steven and Vinny stayed in the middle, they didn't look back at Peter or Pam. Steven was riding Melanie and Vinny was riding Sox, a gorgeous black stallion with a long flower black mane and tail and four complete white socks on his legs.

"What do they all look like?" Pam asked. "Do they all look a-like or are they different?"

"Each looks different," Peter said. "but pretty similar in attitude though. They're a bit stand offish."

"How many did you guys see?" Pam asked, she was excited. "Was it a lot or what?"

"Lots..." Peter said. "Lots of angry Gungans."

Lots of angry Gungans was what they had seen the first and second time they had come into the camp, this time though they were met with a more curious group. It seemed that as soon as Angel's horse had stepped out from a bush on the side of the Gungan camp everyone in the camp had turned to them and quieted, Phantom threw his mane up and half reared up, Angel brought him down quickly then patted his shoulder. When she rode her horse into the camp the Gungans started to move back, not out of fear, Peter could feel the atmosphere in the camp, it was not energized or angry, it felt more like curiousity. A young Gungan, probably no more than six or seven years, walked forward and looked up at Angel, Angel looked down at the Gungan then moved her horse forward, they were moving through a moderately smoky area of the camp, there was a restaurant-like setting to the side where a bunch of Gungans were eating, when three Gungans ran at them.

"Stop!" a Gungan with a pole ordered. "You can't be here!"

"Tub Tub?" Steven asked. "Or are you someone else?"

"What my name is is mine to know and yours to..." the Gungan started.

"Enough Friggy."

The first thing that Steven noticed when the Captain rode forward on his mount was that Angel had looked up in shock, when the Captain had seen her he pulled his Kaadu to a complete stop, there was an errie silence before he spoke.

"Why are you here?" the Captain asked.

"To speak to your leader." Angel said. "That is all I ask."

When Angel had been sick her hair color had darkened to a brown and gotten greasy because she wasn't able to wash it, she had been that weak. Now, with her health in good shape, her hair shined a bright red in the sun. The Captain looked at her, then he looked at the others in the group, when his eyes met Peter he shook his head and turned his Kaadu around. He led them forward, away from whatever was being cooked at the small restaurant. Angel stayed behind the Gungan for a few minutes then with a slight kick, she urged her horse forward and rode beside him.

"I've been told some things," Steven heard his leader say to the Gungan. "how long have you guys been attacked?"

"Months," the Gungan said, glancing at her once. "the first human showed up almost a year ago."

"Was it a hostile meeting with the first human?" Angel asked.

"Killed five, injured nine others and attempted to kidnap a child." the Captain replied.

"All from one human?" Angel asked.

"Yep."

The Gungan seemed fine with Angel walking alongside him, Peter could tell that he was looking at her, from time to time he'd see him slightly move his head to the left. Phantom was bobbing his head a little, the Captain's mount was a little too close to him. When they reached the front of the camp the Captain moved his mount in front of Angel's, when they were twenty feet from a large tree, the one with the stone face leaning against it, the Captain and Angel stopped.

"Your Honor," the Captain yelled, he seemed tired. "more humans have come to our camp."

There was a door connected to the tree, it swung open quickly. Boss Nass, the leader of the Gungans, came out from the tree, Peter saw that there were two, what looked to be younger Gungans behind him, they moved towards the door but didn't exit, instead they seemed to be looking out from the small crack from where the door had not closed. Boss Nass was only three steps from the door when his eyes caught Angel, he stopped cold and stared at her. She shrugged her shoulders, but stayed on her horse.

"Who are you?" he asked. "What do you want?"

"Seems you guys have had problems with some humans," Angel replied. "you need any help in keeping them at bay?"

Boss Nass stood up straighter and narrowed his eyes, before he could say anything Angel caught something with her eye, although she was looking at the tall, robust Gungan on the steps of the stone face, one of her eyes was on the branches of the tree.

"We do not need any assistance from you humans." the Boss bellowed. "Captain, you bothered me from spending quality time with my children and neices and nephews for this? You should have arrested them right when you saw them."

"Yessir," the Captain said. "I'm sorry but the last few days I have had very little sleep, I wasn't thinking."

"Start thinking!" Boss Nass chided the Gungan. "I don't want anyone harmed in this camp and I'd hate to see my son-in-law hurt more than he has been."

Son-in-law, when the words had left Boss Nass' lips Angel had turned to the Captain quickly, everyone was surprised. Not only was the Captain the Captain but the son-in-law to the leader of the Gungans. He had a heavy load on his plate, Peter figured. Angel backed her horse up two steps then raised her head fully, she looked up at the trees branches, Peter looked up as well, at first he didn't see anything then he thought he saw the silohette of someone moving around in the branches.

"With due respect sir," Angel said, still looking up at the branches of the tree. "I do think you need our help."

"Never in my years have I had to utilize the help of someone else to take care of my own problems," the Boss yelled down at her. "I'm not going to start now."

"Sir I think this problem isn't just yours," Angel said. "I think it's everyone's in this camps problem."

"Enough!" the Boss exclaimed. "Captain arrest them and take them to the cells."

The Captain dismounted and walked towards Angel, Angel pulled her reins hard to the left. When her horse moved away the Captain rushed at her. Angel dismounted on the other side, she was still looking up at the trees branches.

"Before you do you need to know this..." she exclaimed. Angel reached her hand to her belt, wrapped it around the handle of her knife then with a flick she drew and threw it up at the branches. At first Peter thought she was crazy then he heard the yell of pain, when the male human fell from a top branch onto the stone head, bounced off and landed on the ground in front of the Captain's mount everyone yelled. Boss Nass pulled back with a start, he had turned around when Angel had thrown the knife, now he was looking at the human then back at Angel with surprise. The Captain turned away from Angel and walked to the human, he turned him around slowly, in the hand of the man was a machete, the blade was wet with a green substance. "you should be careful when you're out and about Mr. Nass, my friends here have notified me that you are tops on the list for these murderous hunters."

Boss Nass walked down the steps, he took one look at the dead human on the ground then passed by him, he headed right for Angel. Angel was standing with one hand on the reins of her horse, Phantom was standing motionless, his ears were perked straight up and were forward, his nostrils flared.

"Who are you?" Boss Nass asked Angel.

"Abigail Sloccum," Angel said. "but many mainly call me Abi though."

"Abigail eh?" the Gungan said. "Why are you here?"

"Came here by boat," Angel said, Peter could tell she was stalling, looking for an answer to Boss Nass' question. "mainly to explore but we too have been attacked by these humans that are assaulting you and your people."

"Why would you be attacked by your own people?" Boss Nass asked, he eyed Angel.

"Humans are known as a violent people sir," Angel replied. "we attack even our own and sometimes for no apparent reason."

"Sometimes even the men attack the women," Peter yelled up at the Gungan. "there are some real messed up humans on this planet."

The robust Gungan looked at Peter then back at Angel, he brought his hand up and stroked his chin once then, without notice, reached forward and grabbed Angel's hair. Angel stayed where she was standing, she didn't move, but she gave the Gungan in front of her an odd look. Peter dismounted and took one step closer then stopped, he was curious to know why the Gungan had grabbed Angel's hair.

"This real human?" the Gungan asked.

"Yessir," Angel replied. "as real as the color of my eyes."

"Most unique both are," the Gungan said with a sniff. He turned around and started to walk back up the stairs, when he was halfway up them he stopped and half turned around. "not sure what you want, but if you're interested in making camp near us you best to do so a hundred yards from our camp. I don't want you no closer than that."

Angel mounted her horse and with a nod at the Captain, she turned her horse around and, gently, nudged him to walk forward. When she was past the whole group they turned their horses and followed. Peter and Steven urged their horses closer to their leader, when they were out of the Gungan camp they pulled up alongside her.

"What are we going to do?" Steven asked.

"We're sitting ducks as we are now," Angel replied. "We make camp a hundred yards from the Gungans."

"I thought we were heading home soon." Peter said, he reached over and grabbed Angel's reins and pulled her horse to a stop.

"Not so fast my friend," Angel said, she wasn't happy about him pulling her horse to a stop. "we have unfinished business here. Hands off my reins."

Peter released her reins and she rode her horse forward, at first at a walk then a trot. When they reached the ship she was cantering. While dismounting she ordered that Andrea start the ship up and head north west, into a small stream. Andrea did as she was told, as she was driving the ship everyone in Angel's group dismounted, Beth led all of the horses below deck, she was on orders to pack a few things on the Mule and on two of the other horses, Peter and Steven though were ordered to get all the weapons they had at their disposal on the ship and put them together on deck. Vinny, who had felt rather left out on the trip to the Gungan camp, went to the cabin part of the ship, he figured that it was time to tell everyone on the ship to be ready to move as soon as they reached wherever Andrea was taking them.

Andrea wasn't the only woman in the cockpit, Pam was by she elbow and she was very excited. Andrea shared some of her excitement, she too was going to be glad that they were moving from the ship to a land camp, but she was also worried. From what she had heard the Gungans were not a very friendly people, at least not at the moment, she hoped that the move was a good one. Angel was down on deck ordering everything from food to their short medical supplies to be packed on the Mule and two of the horses. Andrea could hear that that her friend was telling Steven that they were taking six horses with them, that the other horses would stay on the ship in the animal pens. On Scout Andrea could see that Steven was tying several tents to his back, he had since removed the saddle from the horse, Melanie was being packed with the food and medical supplies.

"Hope that whatever you have in mind," Andrea thought to herself. "won't backfire my friend."

It hadn't been humid and muggy in the forest in the morning when they had arrived first at the Gungan camp then had left, it was now very humid at high noon. Angel led all of her group past the Gungans camp, Pam could see an area where a big Gungan was serving food well, the Gungans that were on the sides of the area eating would look up at them and, while still eating, would just stare. Angel had picked an area about thirty yards from a small pond with plenty of shade for them to make camp, it was a hundred and five yards from the Gungan's camp. When they got there Angel dismounted, ground tied her horse and turned around. Everyone in her group walked by her them stopped, Peter and Steven dismounted first followed by Jonathan, Vinny and Andrea. Pam, Theresa and the young girls remained in their saddles for a few minutes before dismounting.

"What do we do! What do we do!" Sue exclaimed, she was really excited.

"Nothing, you, Lauren and Wendy just sit tight until we have camp somewhat organized." Angel replied.

"Why is everyone calling me Lauren all of a sudden?" Lauren asked. "It's Laura!"

"Sorry Laura," Angel said with an irritated sigh. "Lauren and Laura are very a-like."

"Can we go to the Gungan camp?" Sue asked. "Can we see them?"

"Absolutely not!" Angel exclaimed. "All of us stay in this camp for a while, we adults will go to the Gungan camp but only when we are invited to enter."

"Oh," Sue said, she had jumped back with Angel had yelled. "yes ma'am we'll stay here."

Sue, Laura and Wendy all sat on a log that was by the pond, they looked out at the adults that were putting up the tents. Steven and Peter had put up three tents, Vinny was still putting one up and Angel had put up two. When eight tents had been put up Steven, Vinny, Peter and Angel stopped for a break.

"Sue... Laura... Wendy..." Angel said, breathing hard, she was drenched in sweat.

"Yeah Angel?" Sue replied, she did not know that she had called her leader by her real name.

"It's Abi here Sue!" Angel barked.

"Sorry," Sue said, shocked. "I didn't mean to... I wasn't thinking."

"Start thinking," Angel chided. "you, Wendy and Laura will have that tent in the middle."

The tent in the middle looked the same the others from the front, it was a normal white triangular tent with flaps, but when Sue leaned to the side she saw that it was longer. The others were all the same except that two were tan in color.

"Pam," Angel said, she turned to Pam who had seated herself under a tree. "you and Beth will share the one on the left of the youngers tent, Andrea and Theresa will have the one on the left of their tent."

"What about the men?" Pam asked. "Will they be sharing tents too or will they have separate tents?"

"The tent across from the young girls' tent is Peter and Steven's tent," Angel said, Pam couldn't tell if she was answering her question or just talking. "the tent on their left is Vinny and Jonathan's tent."

"Who gets the the other two tents?" Andrea asked, she was kneeled over in front of the pond with a kerchief in her hand.

"The one beside Vinny and Jonathan's tent is the medical tent," Angel replied. "the one in the front is my tent."

"What makes you so special to have a tent all to yourself?" Theresa spat.

Angel had a canteen up to her lips when Theresa had spoken, she sighed as she drank the water that flowed from the container. When she lowered the canteen she turned towards Theresa. Theresa was standing next to the tree that Pam was sitting under with her arms crossed.

"Because I'm the leader," Angel replied. "nothing really special about my tent, it's smaller than everyone else's."

"So you get to sleep on your own and unwind in peace while all of us have to deal with anothers ugly mug." Theresa sniffed. "How nice."

"Shut up Theresa!" Pam growled. "We're in confort while Angel's decided to not be in comfort. She's making a sacrifice for us."

Twenty minutes passed before Peter and Steven stood up, they headed to the packs on the Scout and Melanie's backs. Steven removed a few items that looked like beds from Melanie's back while Peter removed some small boxes from Scout's back. They took them to the tent that was set up for Andrea and Theresa then returned, they did the same for the next three tents then stopped for a rest, the temperature had risen some. Vinny and Jonathan got up next and resumed what Peter and Steven had been doing, they took some things into Angel's tent then came back removed the rest of the stuff from the horses and took them to the tent that Angel had said was for medical purposes. Sue wondered if Andrea was also going to try to turn that tent into a part research tent, it was sure big enough for more than just medical purposes. The Mule had not been touched yet, he had a lot of stuff on his back. When Vinny and Jonathan returned from putting the remaining items in the medical tents they went to the Mule and unpacked everything from his back, they took most of what was on the animals back to the medical tent while the rest was put in Angel's tent. When they were done they went to the pond and collapsed, both men dunked their heads into the water.

"Everything is unpacked," Angel said. "everyone to your tents and situate it the way you wish it to be situated. Please don't start any fights."

The camp, their camp, had stayed quiet for all of three hours before Theresa had started it up with Angel and Pam. Peter had entered Pam's tent and had sat on her freshly made bed when Theresa had walked in, when she had seen Peter she had started chiding both, Peter had left Pam's tent in a hurry and when the ruckus had reached a high level Angel had entered the tent, when she left hse had Theresa by her arm. Theresa was now in the medical tent helping Andrea get things set up, Sue could detect a few words from both about Angel, Pam and Peter and how Theresa didn't like being near the Gungans. With a shrug of her shoulders, her part of her and her three young friends tent completely finished, Sue found herself bored so she walked towards the Gungan camp. She stopped ten feet from the camp and hid behind a large tree root. She stared out at the Gungans so intently that she didn't hear Angel come up from behind.

"A bit too close to their camp," Angel said, she tapped Sue on her shoulder gently. "go back to our camp now."

"Sorry!" Sue exclaimed, she had jumped up when Angel had spoken to her, she had been very close to her. "I was just curious is all."

"Curousity is a good thing," Angel said," but at this time it can also be a deadly thing. Keep your curiousity at bay for at least three days."

Sitting on the edge of his bed, Peter almost felt like yelling like Tarzan. He felt exhilarated, he was very excited. His tent was across from Pam's and he had visited her once, although it had been a short visit. Of the women in their group he was most interested in two of them, Angel and Pam. He thought both were very beautiful, unique and very sexy. Angel was a rare female to him, he hadn't seen anyone like her before, long red hair and emerald green eyes that shined very brightly and Pam was a platinum blonde with very icy blue eyes, Angel was tall at five foot eight inches while Pam was five foot three inches.

"Think I'll be allowed to have a threesome with the redhead and blonde?" Peter asked Steven.

"Let it go man," Steven sighed, he was getting tired of hearing Peter's dreams of having a threesome with Angel and Pam. "no chance, Angel won't allow it."

"Okay then how about a single with one girl one night and the other the next night?" Peter said, he bounced on his bed a little.

"No chance still." Steven said, he was about to exit the tent. "You should know by now that both women are not going to allow themselves to mate with you."

"Maybe right now," Peter said, he hooked his fingers into his belt. "but in a few weeks I'll of swept both off of their feet. You'll see my bulky friend."

Steven exited the tent shaking his head, they were not even in their camp for three hours and Peter had already started his antics with Pam, Steven knew that Angel would put him in his place but Pam though he wasn't so sure. He had seen Pam and Peter standing together on the deck of their ship a few times talking and he had also seen them both walking together in the hallways of their ship. He didn't know what was going on between them two, were they good friends or was Pam starting to accept his advances. He had no clue and he really didn't want to know, both were married, Pam had two young children, a six year old son and an eight year old daughter and Peter had a five year old daughter. Sighing loudly, he headed for Angel's tent, pulling the front flap up, he ducked under it and entered her tent. Angel was seated in a chair writing in a small journal, when she heard him come in she swiftly closed the journal and turned around.

"Everything is set up Miss. Irene," he said, he whispered the Miss. Irene to her. "anything else you want us to do?"

"No," Angel replied, she threw a lock of her red hair over her shoulder. "nothing except just have everyone stay away from the Gungan camp until I say it's okay. We don't want any trouble."

"Yes ma'am," Steven said, he fought bowing to the beautiful redhead in front of him. "I'll make sure to keep everyone in my sights, Beth is positioned in the branches of a tree and is keeping a good aerial view of both our camp and some of the Gungan camp. We're all set for whatever is thrown at us."

"Good good," Angel sighed, she turned around and fiddled a little with the cover to her journal. "we best be ready, because now it gets really serious."


	9. Chapter 9

Twenty-four hours after they had set up camp and gotten everything in order the Gungans in the camp a hundred and five yards away started to get curious. Sue, who had stayed in the camp after she had been found only ten feet from it the day before, was staying in her and her friends camp, she was obeying her leaders orders well. Laura and Wendy were also behaving. Wendy was sitting by a log with a bowl on her lap, she was grinding up some sort of plant that Angel had brought back from when she had go to the small trickle falls in front of the pond, the plant that Angel had brought back looked like a simple lily pad but instead of a small white flower on the plant it had a stems with a bud growing from it, Angel had instructed Wendy to remove the roots and ground them into a fine powder. Wendy, even though she was in her final year of being a teenager, was given a little more to do than Sue and Laura, she was allowed to hold a gun but not fire it and participate in gathering items that they needed, that was all though.

"Sue," Angel called, she was walking up from the pond's shore. "have you learned to sew yet?"

"Yeah but I'm not that good at it though." Sue replied, she looked down at the ground, embarrassed.

"Regardless, here sew up this canvas." Angel said, she tossed her a medium long brown canvas with a hole in the middle.

Sitting down across from Wendy, Sue pulled the canvas over her lap and, reaching into her pocket, she took out a sewing needle and put a thread threw it, before she could start sewing she heard a sound from behind her. Turning around quickly, dropping the needle, she looked behind her and saw a Gungan standing five feet from her, she was peaking out from behind the trunk of a tree.

The Gungan looked female, her features were gentle, her eyes were a light yellow, almost had a gold look to them. Leaning a little to the side, Sue saw that she had light green skin and was wearing a light blue dress with a beautiful light yellow designed sash that had blue swirls on it. From the looks of the Gungan, Sue guessed that she looked no younger than herself. Before she could say anything Wendy looked up and noticed the Gungan.

"Abigail!" Wendy Gungan didn't move, she didn't make a sound, the only thing they heard was when the wind caught her dress. Angel walked up slowly from the pond's bank, she had been busy refilling canteens when Wendy had called her.

"What?" Angel asked the nineteen year old. When Wendy pointed at the Gungan Angel stood there for a second then placed the canteens down. "Back to what you two were doing."

The wound that Angel had gotten when the hunter had shot her in the shoulder with the arrow was very noticable, Angel had removed the bandage from her shoulder and her blouse wasn't buttoned all the way, the right side of her shirt hung down a bit. Picking up her needle and thread from the ground, Sue began sewing the hole in the canvas, from the corner of her eye she watched as Angel walked towards the Gungan. The Gungan took three steps back then stopped, she was staring intently at Angel.

"Bit far from your camp young one." Angel said. "What do you want?"

"Nothing," the Gungan replied, she had a honey sounding voice. "I was just curious is all."

"What's your name?" Angel asked.

"Laylie," the Gungan replied, she looked around a bit nervously. "Laylie Nass."

"Nice to meet you," Angel said, Sue almost swore she caught some excitement in the tone of Angel's voice. "my name's Abigail. Abigail Sloccum."

"Why is that human there grinding up Pom?" Laylie asked.

"We need flour," Angel answered. "we're a bit low."

"She looks like you," Laylie said, she turned her body slightly and walked around the tree. She stood a good six feet tall, no more than that. "is she your daughter?"

Angel was taken back by the question, Wendy was a good eleven years younger than she was, much too old to be her daughter. Sue almost wanted to laugh, since Angel lived in her county she knew a lot about her and when it came to children she had none, and everyone knew she wasn't interested in children or in settling down. She was unmarried and, as some would say, happily single.

"No, much too old to be my daughter." Angel replied, a hint of annoyance was detected in her voice.

"How old is she?" Laylie asked.

"Nineteen." Angel replied quickly.

"How old are you?" Laylie asked, she was now rapidly throwing the questions at Angel and Angel was getting a bit nervous, she was now leaning against the tree that Laylie had been peaking from.

"Thirty." Angel replied.

"I'm sixteen,"Laylie replied, she jumped up a little in excitement and grabbed Angel's exposed shoulder. Angel squinted in pain and pulled away quickly, when she placed her hand on her shoulder Laylie placed her hand on hers, her head was tilted slightly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."

"No problem, don't think nothing of it." Angel said, pain seeped in her voice. "You didn't know."

"What happened?" Laylie asked.

"I was shot by an arrow," Angel replied. "a big arrow."

"My mah..." Laylie started.

"Laylie Lilka Nass!"

Sue and Wendy stopped what they were doing and, looking up, saw an adult female Gungan walking forward hurriedly. She was wearing a slim pair of light brown pants with a yellow beltwith a small bright green buckle around the waist and had a shirt on that was very intricate in design. The shirt was mostly gray, over it was a vest that connected at the neck, the shoulder parts of the vest was a gold color, very shiny. On the Gungans feet were flat wooden boards, Sue guessed it was their equivalent of a shoe. The adult Gungan walked forward and grabbed Laylie by the shoulder of her dress and turned her around, with a brisk, yet gentle, shove she sent the Gungan back to their camp. Before she followed her she turned around and looked at Angel, she raised her haillu and ran at her, when she flattened Angel to her back Wendy and Sue stood up and before they could rush forward to help her she waved them away.

"Stay away from my niece!" the adult Gungan hissed down at Angel.

Everyone in the camp had either seen or heard about what had happened, Andrea had rushed up to Angel when the adult female Gungan had walked off, Angel's shoulder, although healing, was very tender. When Angel had stood up and started to walk off Peter had walked up and offered to carry her to her tent, she had waved him off and walked off to her horse, when she mounted up and rode off everyone in the camp started talking.

"What the hell?" Peter exclaimed. "All she was doing was talking to the girl, the girl was the one that harmed her and yet that adult female was hostile towards Angel..."

"Remember these people have gone through a lot," Andrea said. "it will take a while to get their trust."

"Trust?" Peter repeated, he also shouted the word. "After having them near stone me and then seeing that they don't deserve our trust! That one female assaulted our leader for no apparent reason."

"She assaulted our leader as a way to show dominance." Beth said from the branches of the tree next to the pond. "Nothing but that."

"I'm going to my tent!" Peter exclaimed. "I'm not staying out here where assaulting Gungans are only yards from me, I'm going to start keeping a good eye on Angel... and Pam."

Pushing her hair from her face, Beth looked out at the Gungan camp, the young female Gungan that had said her name was Laylie was being pushed up the steps that were behind the stone face, the Gungan behind her seemed to be chiding her hard. Although Peter was acting irrational, Beth understood fully why the Gungans were acting the way they were. If she were one of them she would act the same way, the humans on the island that were hunting them had forged a tight ring of distrust around the Gungans, they were not just going to run forward wit hahnds outstretched and welcome them happily to their island, they were all going to have to earn their trust.

The Gungans curiousity had grown more and more by noon, when Angel had returned with a big, Rhinosaurus looking animal five Gungans that looked between ten and fifteen years of age had come towards their camp, they were still peaking out at them from behind tree trunks. Angel had a big, beautiful, knife on her, she payed no attention to the Gungans that were watching them and started cutting the animal up, she removed the armor-like skin off and placed that to the side, Steven and Jonathan came forward and, gently pushing her aside, took over cutting the animal. Angel put up a minor fight, she cut off the canine-like horns from the animal then went to cutting off the nails from the animals feet, when she was done she allowed for Steven to elbow her away. Carrying the canine-like horns, the skin and the nails from the animal that she had taken, she headed for the log that was in front of the pond.

"Inquisitive aren't they?" Andrea asked, she walked up the Angel and sat down beside her.

"Yes," Angel replied. "inquisitive and cautious."

"What's the skin for?" Andrea asked.

"A Jaboon has tough, armor-like skin," Angel started. "we're gonna need some armor for protection."

"Jaboon?" Andrea repeated the name. "You naming animals again?"

"Yep." Angel replied. "I'm naming animals again."

"If you ask me that animal looks similar to a Rhino," Andrea said. "why not give it some sort of Rhino name?"

Angel stopped pealing the meat that had stayed on the armor-like skin and looked up, the Gungans that had been watching them were coming closer, they were now no more than five feet from them, one that looked male and semeed to be the oldest was the closest.

"They do look similar to a Rhino," Angel replied after a while. "like one of those Javan Rhinos."

"Islandous Javanous?" Andrea half joked.

"Sounds good my friend," Angel said, she turned to Andrea and smiled a little. "this place has some unique animals."

"How do you know what that animal is?"

Looking up sharply, Andrea saw that the male child had walked all the way to them, he was now just two feet from them. The child had a short sleeve shirt on, it was made of the same brown fabric as the other Gungan clothes were made of, and was wearing dark brown pants, over his shirt was a light brown almost gray vest, around his waist was a dark blue belt, there was a silver buckle on it. The young Gungan had dark orange eyes and had orange skin.

"I don't." Angel replied.

"That's what the animal is called," the young Gungan said to Angel. "he's a Jaboon."

"Jaboon eh?" Peter laughed. "The mighty Gaboon came to this island and mated with a Rhino and the result was a... Jaaaah booooon!"

Andrea and Angel couldn't hold it in, Peter's joke was funny, both women started laughing. The young Gungan backed up a step when Peter walked up, he looked the Gungan up and down then walked forward, he kneeled down beside Angel and grabbed the armor plate that she had made, when he stood up he placed it on his head.

"Lookit me," Peter joked. "I'm ready for Viet Nam."

"The next barge heads there at noon," Beth called from her perch on the tree above them. "better jump on board."

"We'll miss you buddy," Steven called, he was still knelt down by the Jaboon. "send us a post card when you get there."

"Don't get shot in the butt," Jonathan shouted, he was trying hard to not laugh. "the million dollar wound does not get payed."

"And it hurts a lot!" Beth said, she was starting to laugh now.

The young Gungan was looking at them strangely, the Gungans that were behind him were walking up slowly, one was scratching his head. When Peter sat down he wrapped his arm around Angel, he looked at her once then looked away.

"You two dating?" the young Gungan asked.

"No," Angel said with a start. "we are not."

"Why are you girls here on our island?" the Gungan asked.

"Remember what the Captain said Aggy?" a female Gungan that was slightly behind the young male Gungan asked. "He said that this group is going to try to populate our island with humans."

The Gungan behind the young male Gungan was a female, Angel could see that. She had a slender face and was shorter, she either guessed it was because she was a female Gungan or she was younger. She was wearing a green dress with bright yellow and blue swirls on the front, she had wooden flats under her feet, her skin was light orange and her eyes were dark orange, Angel guessed that the young male and young female Gungans in front of the other young Gungans were related.

"Not true," Angel said, she stood up and brushed her hands on her pants. "we're here to explore, that is all."

"But the Captain..." the female Gungan started to say.

"Is wrong," Angel interrupted, she collected the armored skin, canine-like horns and nails and went off, leaving her friends behind her she headed for her tent. Surprisingly, she was not alone, the young male and female Gungans were following her.

"The Captain is never wrong!" the female Gungan yelled.

"How dare you disrespect him that way!" the male Gungan that the female Gungan had called Aggy exclaimed.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," the female Gungan chided. "my uncle gave you permission to be near our camp and you disrespect the Captain in such a way."

Angel stopped when she got to her tent and turned around, the female Gungan was the closest and very nearly walked into her. The male Gungan named Aggy stopped in his tracks. The female Gungan took one step back then shook her head, Angel shrugged her shoulder's and brushed her hand over her shirt, she said not a word nor made a sound.

"You're uncle eh," Angel said, she had a sly smile on her face. "I did not disrespect the Captain I was stating truth. He was wrong about that one part about us females being here to populate your island."

"Yes my uncle!" the female Gungan yelled. "My uncle Boss Nass!"

"So your uncle is Boss Nass," Angel said, she brought her hand up to her chin. "I didn't mean to sound disrespectful towards the Captain, I apologize. I'll watch my tongue next time he is brought up."

"You better," the female Gungan said, a hint of hostility in her voice. "or the next time I'll tell the Captain and he'll come here with his cuffs and arrest you. He only has a heart for one human, for you and your group he has nothing but hate towards."

The two young Gungans ran off, the other youn Gungans having already done so. Angel just looked at them then, with a slight shrug of her shoulders, pulled her tent flap up and disappeared inside it. She walked to her chair and sat on it, when she placed the armored skin, nails and canine-like horns down on the ground she reached over and grabbed a journal. Opening it slowly, she grabbed the pen in her hand and started writing. When she was finished her eyes were very bright and heavy, frowning deeply, takign her hand and brushing it across her face, she stood up and walked to the front of her tent and just stood there.

"A heart for one human," she repeated what the Gungan had said to her. "for you and your group he though he has nothing but hate towards. It is how it should be, I wouldn't want it any other way than this. Guiding Spirits help me... help us... our adventure has only just began on this island."


	10. Chapter 10

"Hoe there my stud," Angel said to her stallion. "let me clean you before I toss the saddle up."

The near white horse had other plans, since they were by the pond it was rather wet around so he dug his front left hoof into the ground and then pulled it up, spraying himself with wet grass and mud. Angel jumped a little to the side then rolled her eyes, she knelt over and cleaned the now muddy stomach of her horse then went back to his back. Bringing the cloth over him slowly, still revelling at the muscle on the stallion that she had retired from racing years ago to stud then had made a comeback with him, she smiled wide. The horse was seven years old, a young stud, and was a prime champion. His black hooves shone brightly, as did his glistening white mane and tail, his body shined so brightly it almost hurt her eyes. Placing her hand on his light gray muzzle, she brought him to her and gave him a small kiss, the horse tossed his head up as if saying 'woman'.

"Will ya hold still!" Angel said to her horse. "Can't put the saddle on with you fidgeting around."

She had rode on the back of the horse in front of her's sire, she couldn't believe how much difference each horse had. While Phantom had been born all gray, the shade of gray of his father, he had lightened up to near white, and he was not as thin as his famous sire. Don Quixotol had been a light weight horse, he had never had a skinny day in his life and ate well but he sure was thin enough to worry everyone that saw him. Every time he had stepped on the track he had stopped and stood, proud, showing off that pure Arabian blood in him, throwing that head and tail up high and perking them ears. He had been and still was an impressive horse, not only in speed but in color. A slate gray in color with pinto markings and a very light mane and tail, his hooves, which were big and looked funny on him, were all black. Angel remembered well when she had paired him with the white Appaloosa markinged mare Luchadora, who was also a very uniquely marked, pure Arabian, horse. Phantom had been her first and her only foal, whenever she had tried breeding Luchadora to Don Quixotol it would result in no foals coming to term. Currently, at age thirteen, Luchadora was pregnant with her fifth Don Quixotol foal, she was only nine months a long, Angel hoped that this time she carried to term and delivered a healthy foal, all of her other foals had disappeared after the fifth month of gestation.

Throwing the black western saddle on Phantom's back, she quickly tightened the cinch then went and put on the bridle, Phantom wasn't a hard horse to tack up but when it came to the saddle he did like to act up some. He accepted the bit quickly then pawed at the ground, Angel shook her head then jumped up into the saddle, she hadn't even sat down on the seat when she turned her horse around and headed into the Gungan camp, where she had been asked to go see Boss Nass and the Captain.

"Head straight and ride slow my fine stallion," she said to her horse. "lets show them excellence in the Arabian breed!"

Things in camp had been going slow, a few hinges but nothing serious, they had been visited a lot by curious Gungans and a few of those visits had brought a few hostile adult Gungans, she had a few bruises on her from where the adults had pushed her down or punched her to show dominance. She hadn't acted hostile back but had just allowed it to happen, there was no other way other fight the murderous hunters that were hunting the Gungans to gain the Gungans trust. Giving her horse a little kick, she trotted into the Gungans camp, when she was no more than fifty feet in their camp she was forced to come to a stop.

"Looks like a Guarlara," a female Gungan said, she was looking Phantom over. "only it's white instead of black."

"And the hooves," Angel thought to herself. "Guarlara's have bigger hooves and have horns while a horse has smaller hooves and no horns."

"What is this creature?" the Gungan asked.

"Phantom." Angel replied.

"He looks like a Ghost." the Gungan said.

She like speaking about her horses, and would have liked to stay and speak a little more to the Gungan who was now running her hands through her stallions thick white mane, but the Captain was gesturing for her to hurry up so she said goodbye to the Gungan and rode her horse forward. She didn't have to bring Phantom with her, the Gungan camp could have been reached on foot, but she had figured it best to bring her horse with and that maybe by seeing him the Captain and Boss Nass would be a little less hostile.

"You called for me your honor," she said to the stout Gungan that was turned away from her.

Boss Nass stood up straight and turned to her, when he saw Phantom he just lowered and then raised his eyes, he did nothing more. Dismounting, Angel ground tethered her horse then patted him on the shoulder. The Captain was standing with his hand on the reins of his Kaadu, he still did not look like he had gotten any sleep.

"Yes," the boss said. "I'd like to speak to you about them men in your camp. How active are they?"

"Active?" Angel repeated, not fully understanding the question. "What do you mean sir?"

"How sexually active are they," the boss said, he was slightly annoyed. "if you haven't noticed there are young ones running around including my own."

"Not a single one is sexually active." Angel said, in her mind she grew a bit worried about Peter as he could be a little perverted at times.

"Good," the Gungan sniffed. "cause I don't need to be hearing from my children or my nieces and nephews about anything from you humans did in your camp."

"With due respect sir," Angel said, she was picking her words carefully. "we are happy to be in our camp but would it be too much to ask for the young ones to give us some privacy in the night hours?"

Boss Nass looked at her oddly, once again he brought his hand up and stroked his chin, Angel felt a slight shiver run down her back. Her horse pawed the ground then started to throw his head up, before she could stop him he pulled hard to the right and started to sniff the Kaadu that the Captain had the reins to. The Captain tugged his Kaadu hard, pulling it away from her horse, he gave her a dirty look then tied his mount to a downed tree.

"The animal," the Captain started. "is male correct?"

"Yes." Angel answered, she looked at the Gungan strangely.

"Is he fixed?" the Captain asked.

"No," Angel replied quickly. "he is intact."

"Either have him castrated or control him," the Gungan spat. "I don't need any Kaadu offspring sired by that animal nor want to have to impound him."

"I'll control him sir." Angel said, she grabbed the reins of her horse.

The female Gungan that had pushed Laylie away from them and their camp yesterday walked up, she gave Angel a disgusted look then handed both men a glass of yellow drink, from the smell of the drink Angel figured it was some sort of Lemonade, it sure had a sweet, fruity smell to it. The Captain glanced her way then gulped his down slowly, his movements were entirely exhausted.

"You seem right tired mister," Angel said to the Gungan. "haven't had much sleep lately?"

"No I have not," the Gungan said to her. "thanks to you and your group I will be getting less now."

"Me and my group you won't have to worry about," Angel spoke sharply. "I'd suggest you try to get some sleep tonight so you..."

"You suggest... let me suggest you something human!" the Captain said sternly. "Keep your group away from this camp, do not interact with us and stay out of my way. If you what's good for you you will."

Angel pulled back some with shock, the Captain looked at her with such savagery that she felt fear. Captain Tarpals snatched his reins up, mounted his Kaadu quickly and rode off leaving her with Boss Nass and the female that had brought the drinks.

"I agree with the Captain and that was what I was wanting you to come here for," the Gungan said. "all it will take is one mistake... for one of you to slip up and I'll have you all kicked out of your camp as fast as you can say Slaatik hagworm, understand me?"

"Yessir," Angel replied. "I understand you fully."

"Good," the Gungan said to her, he turned around slightly and handed to glass to the female Gungan slightly behind him. "thank you Kutsi, it was very good."

Mounting her horse in a single leap, Angel turned and headed straight for her camp, she kicked her horse once very gently and he trotted then when she gave him another gentle kick he cantered. She rode into her camp, dismounted and tied her horse up next to Scout then headed straight for Peter and Steven's tent, she figured that if anyone was going to start trouble it would surely be Peter, he was humorous at times but could act a little perverted and immature. Throwing the tent flap back, she entered the tent, the first thing she saw was Steven sitting on his bed reading one of his music magazines.

"Where's Peter?" she asked.

"Out," Steven said, not looking up from the magazine. "think he went to the pond."

"Did he follow Pam?" Angel asked.

"No," Steven replied. "Pam is in her tent napping."

Exiting the tent quickly, she headed to the pond quickly, she wanted to speak to Peter now. Walking briskly past Pam and Beth's tent, nodded her head at Jonathan who was cleaning one of the three guns they had and then started to run slowly. When she was at the pond she looked around, Peter wasn't anywhere around so she started calling. After the second time calling his name she saw him stand up, he was pulling his pants up. Walking up slowly, allowing the man to finish redressing himself, she sighed heavily.

"Hey Peter." she said.

"Hello beautiful." Peter said.

"As you know we're fine with your humor and we're somewhat accustomed to your perverted ways," Angel said, she was looking right at the man, right in his eyes. "keep your perverted ways to a down low for a while."

"Something wrong?" Peter asked, he pushed his hair our of his eyes. "You seem concerned about something."

"I've just been told that all it'll take for them to throw us out of our camp is for one of us to louse up. So please keep you libido down for a while." Angel said.

"Them? Who them?" Peter asked, he looked a bit offended.

"The Gungans." Angel replied.

"I'll keep my ways down in front of them," Peter said, he stared at Angel, looked right into her eyes and didn't look away. "but when it's just us I will be open."

"That'll be fine." Angel said. "As you know I don't want any trouble, it seems that they are looking for some at every twist and turn."

"Really... honestly... "Peter whispered, he slid forward a little. "I don't like them, but I'll be respectful to you and obey your order boss."

"Thank you Peter." Angel said. "It's going to be..."

Before she could finish a shot was fired, at first she thought it was from Jonathan who was cleaning the gun in the camp but then she saw five men rush out at them. She took one look then pushed Peter to the ground, when the men got closer she put her hand to her belt and took out a knife, she stabbed one in the gut then let the knife go when he fell to the ground, when another man came forward she grabbed the spool that was on her belt and with a quick yank pulled a thick wire from around it and severed the man's head from his neck. A third man had stayed back, he stood by the pond and looked at them coldly, turning around on his heels he headed off in the direction he came from.

"Redhead!" the man shouted at them. "Heed this warning! Leave your camp and the island if you know what's good for you. We will attack you if you remain where you are."

Angel wasn't paying attention to what the man had yelled, Peter had heard it well but she hadn't. Angel had raced into the camp and had jumped one of the men that had started slashing at a tent. When she had flattened him to the ground she started slamming her fists against him, he shook off her blows then kicked her off, before he could get up Jonathan lowered his gun and placed a bullet into the middle of his head. The other man had entered Sue, Wendy and Laura's tent, when he exited he had one of the girls, the other two were screaming from inside in pain. Angel got up and with a high kick, flattened the man to his back, when he touched the ground she grabbed her knife and with a flick threw it into his face. He screamed out in pain for one second before flopping over to his side. He died in that position.

"Like I said things are going to start getting serious." Angel said to herself.

"Angel... Ang..." Steven shouted, he rushed from his tent with a rifle in hand. Once Angel saw the gun she grabbed it from him and tapped it against his leg, tripping him up.

"It's Abigail Nigro!" Angel spat.

Angel felt right bad about tripping Steven up and calling him by his last name, after a few minutes of getting herself under control she bent down and wrapping her hand around his arm helped him up to his feet. She handed him the gun then opened the flaps of Sue, Wendy and Laura's tent, she met with a horrible sight when she entered the tent. Sue had been carried off, when Angel had kicked him down he had dropped her, she had run off someplace. Laura and Wendy, both were bleeding, Wendy looked like she had had a gun slammed into her head, she was lying on the bed on her side, there was a large cut to her forehead, and Laura's arm was cut open.

"Get these two to the medical tent pronto!" Angel ordered. "Steven!"

"Yes ma'am..." Steven said, he was standing by her arm.

"Come with me," Angel said. "we must find Sue!"

The attack on their camp had not gone unnoticed by the Gungans, when the shots had gone off all of the Gungans that were near their camp had fled, screaming, further into their camp and soldiers, both on foot and on Kaadu, had rushed forward, many had had poles with them while others had blue spheres. The Captain had galloped his Kaadu forward, he had had a pole in one of his hands, he was now standing twenty feet from their camp. Angel ran to Phantom and with a flying leap got on his back, turning him around quickly she headed away from their camp, Steven ran up to Scout and just put a bridle on him, he pulled himself up onto the horses back then headed in the direction Angel had gone, she was currently yelling out Sue's name.

"Sue!" he called out, he threw his head from side to side. "Sue where are you?"

Scout stopped dead in his tracks and would not budge so Steven dismounted, awkwardly, then looked around. He took three steps then felt a hand wrap around his ankle. With a yell he turned around and pointed his gun down. Laying in a fetal position in a bush next to him was Sue and she looked terrified.

"Abi she's here!" Steven yelled to his leader.

Kneeling down beside the scared girl, Steven gently placed his hand on her shoulder, she looked up at him then lowered her head and started crying. Placing his gun down, he wrapped his arms around the girl and picked her up, she had a cut to her leg but was unharmed. Sue buried her head in his shirt and started sobbing heavily. Turning around, Steven grabbed the reins of his horse and walked to their camp, Angel rode up next to him, she said nothing for a few seconds.

"She okay?" Angel asked.

"Yeah," Steven said lightly. "just real scared."

"Lets get her in the youngsters tent," Angel sighed. "she needs rest."

Sue getting rest was far from what she got, a few hours later she, along with Wendy and Laura, all got very bad fevers and couldn't eat ot drink, every time they tried to keep something down they would throw it up. All three girls were in their tent, Angel had requested that they be moved to their tent because it was cooler than the medical tent. She was sitting next to Sue, the youngest, and had not left their tent in near two hours.

"First we're attacked," Peter sighed, he fought the anger he felt inside. "now the young ones fall ill. What else can go wrong!"

"Now that you've said that," Steven replied, irritated. "a lot will happen. It always does after you say that sentence."

Suppertime was not a pleasant one, Peter almost had to force himself to eat, it wasn't out of illness but out of worry. He was real worried about the young girls, all of them had refused to eat and Sue's fever had grown to her also having shivering fits. Andrea was extremely busy going between the three girls, keeping them warm and hydrated, she had put IV's in their arms and that was all that was keeping them hydrated. Angel was doing all she could to help, she had been going to the pond to fill up their water bottles with cool water for the girls, so far Peter had heard that of the three girls Sue was the one that they were really concerned about. Peter had heard that she was shivering violently, was refusing all food and water and could not sleep. Looking up from his almost finished plate when he heard someone lifting the flap of his and Steven's tent, he saw that Steven was walking in, his overshirt was half buttoned and his pants legs were rolled up, in his hand were his shoes.

"The hell did you do?" Peter asked.

"A little bit of pond fishing." Steven replied.

"Catch anything?" Peter asked.

"Yes this odd looking fish," Steven said.

Steven held up a small green fish that Peter had never seen before, most of the fish was a Fern green in color, under its body was a big bubble, from the mouth back to the tail fin, which did not look anything like a tail fin but he figured that was the best word he could come up for it, the eyes of the fish was red. The fish wasn't very big, maybe under twelve inches.

"You eating that?" Peter asked, he almost gagged on the question.

"No I think Andrea would tear me a new bunghole if I did." Steven replied.

"What's that on your pants?" Peter asked, he leaned his body over slightly.

Steven turned his body around, when he caught view of what was dangling from the seat of his pants he jumped up. Dropping the fish he had caught, he wrapped his hands around the animal and with a big tug pulled it off of him. When he turned around he threw it on the ground, it bounced twice then landed in front of Peter's feet. Peter placed his plate off to the side then reached down, he poked the fish once, when it didn't move he picked it up. The fish had a tall, narrow body that was redish orange in color, when he ran his hand down the side he felt it was well armored, it had a large tail fin that was orange and white.

"Looks like you found a new girlfriend pal," Peter half joked. "an ugly one at that."

"What's that in it's mouth?" Steven asked, he was bent over picking up his fish.

Peter turned the fish around and looked at it more closely, the eyes were black, pure black, he couldn't detect a pupil, the mouth looked similar to a Piranha, it had small, sharp looking teeth in a small round mouth.

"Looks like something from a horror movie." Peter said, almost to himself.

"Yeah it does," Steven said. "why don't you hang onto it for a while."

"Thanks but no thanks," Peter said, he threw the fish at Steven who dodged it. "I like my women without sharp teeth thank you."

Steven walked over to the fish and picked it up, he placed it on the stick that he had brought with him then exited the tent, he headed for the medical tent as he saw that someone was in there and he hoped it was Andrea. Walking faster, he reached the tent when the flaps opened, Andrea walked right into him.

"Woops sorry Steven," Andrea apologized. "didn't mean to walk into you."

"No problem," Steven said. "how are the girls?"

"Wendy and Laura are stablizing, Sue though is not." Andrea replied. "I'm real worried."

"Think one of these might help her?"

When Steven held up the fish Andrea's eyes widened, she grabbed his arm and led him to her tent then pulled him inside, when they were in her tent she took the fish from him and placed them on her short desk, which was really a small chair table.

"I'll look at them when I'm done fixing up Sue and the girls," she said. "most interesting fish there, especially the orange one."

"That one seems to have teeth like a Piranha," Steven said to his friend. "it was dangling on my pants and I didn't know anything about it."

"Anything missing on you?" Andrea asked, a hint of a laugh in her voice.

"Nope, everything intact." Steven replied, he gave her a slight smile.

Andrea nodded her head then exited her tent, Steven took one look at the fish that she had put on her desk then followed. He wondered if the Gungans would help the young ones in their group, surely they wouldn't be too hostile towards the younger members. Heading for then entering his tent, he nodded at Peter then pulled the curtain that separated his side of the tent from Peter's. He too off his wet clothes then put on fresh, dry ones. When he took the curtain down Peter had finished what was on his plate.

"What's the occassion?," Peter asked. "what's with the professional gear?"

"I'm headed to the Gungan camp," Steven replied. "I'm going to see if they'll give us some sort of medicine for Sue, Wendy and Laura are getting better but Sue is not."

"I'd better go with you," Peter said, he stood up quickly. "just in case something happens and you need an extra hand."

When they walked into the Gungan camp the children in the camp looked at them curiously before being herded off by worried adults. They hadn't taken ten steps in the camp before a Gungan with a pole ran at them, yelling. Steven stood motionless, Peter though did not. He took one step forward and, to Steven's surprise, the Gungan lowered the pole and jabbed him with it, when he did the pole's tip glowed blue, Peter jumped back with shock.

"What the hell!" he exclaimed. "Those damn poles are electrified!"

"Dat is right!" the Gungan yelled at him. "Yousa both go back to yousa camp now!" Hearing the sound of an animal trotting at them, Steven and Peter looked to the side, coming at them was the Captain. He looked none to happy to see them.

"Why are you here?" the Captain demanded.

"We're wondering if you could help us," Steven spoke slowly. "the young ones in our camp are ill, one right badly. Would you be so kind as to help us get them back up to health?"

The Captain was silent for a few minutes then he signaled to the Gungan with the pole, the Gungan that was holding the pole pointed it at them and with a sharp jab, struck both of them. Peter pulled back in pain, Steven shook his off. The pole was silver in color with a dull gold spiral that went all the front around the weapon, the top was triangular and came to a sharp point. When the Gungan pointed the pole at them again Steven walked forward and grabbed it in his hands, he yanked it away from the Gungan then threw it away to the side.

"All you had to say was no," Steven said to the two Gungans. "you didn't have to get violent with us."

Turning around, Steven gave the Captain a glance then headed back to his camp, when he got back he saw that Angel had left the tent, she was walking towards him and Peter, who was holding the area where the Gungan had zapped him twice.

"What happened to him?" Angel asked.

"Zapped by a friggin' electronic pole." Peter growled in pain.

"We went to the Gungan camp..." Steven started to say.

"You did what!" Angel exclaimed, she rushed at Steven and looked him straight in the eye. "Why did you go to their camp? We are not allowed to enter their camp unless invited!"

"We went to see if they could give us some medicine for Sue since she so sick." Steven replied.

"You idiot!" Angel yelled at him. "We have medicine to cure her, you didn't have to go bother them people for something that we already have."

Steven took a step back, hurt, he didn't want to admit it but besides the fact that he was a big fan of Angel's racing he also had a slight crush on her. Peter took a step to the side then stopped, his hand was still on the area he had been zapped. He, too, looked shocked at Angel calling Steven an idiot.

"I'm sorry Ang... I mean Abi," Steven apologized, a hint of hurt was detected in his voice. "I was just so worried about Sue that I wasn't thinking... I'll start from now on."

Steven walked off, his shoulders slumped forward and he seemed to have a defeated look to him. Peter looked at Angel and saw that she still had a hard face on. Sighing, he moved off, following Steven. Before he could get fivee feet he felt a hand wrap around the arm that had been zapped, he didn't move away, he felt someone press their body up against his back.

"Quit acting afraid of them and quit acting like your in pain," Angel said in his ear. "he didn't use that much electricity on you."

"It did and does hurt..." Peter started to say then stopped. He sighed heavily then changed his sentence. "yes ma'am, I'll stop making a scene."

"Head back to your tent and stay there." Angel ordered. "If we go to the Gungan camp it's by my orders or by invite hear me?"

"Yes ma'am." Peter said, he looked down at the ground.

*****11****


	11. Chapter 11

Steven was still hurt by Angel calling him an idiot two days later, he had completely stayed away from her and had avoided any conversation that involved her or brought her up. Peter was getting worried, usually his friend was right laid back but as of the past two days he wasn't acting himself. Sue was still ill, Wendy and Laura were now able to get up and walk around but Sue was still in their tent on her bed. Andrea had said that her temperature had stabilized but she still had not eaten anything.

"Think Sue will recover here soon?" Peter asked Theresa.

"I'm not totally sure that that man that had tried to take her didn't give her something to make her sick." Theresa replied.

"I've wondered that too," Peter sighed. "but Andrea..."

"Andrea doesn't know it all stupid!" Theresa spat. "Andrea may have checked her to see if anything was given to her that would have made her sick and missed something important."

"What's with all this male abuse?" Peter asked, slightly offended. "First Steven now me."

Peter was getting rather tired of the insulting, he was sure that Angel was just over stressed about things and didn't mean what insults she threw at both him and Steven but the others though he was sure they were just following what all she did and said. Theresa had started up calling him an idiot, stupid amongst others soon after he had exited his tent, he had had to shoot Wendy a few glances when she had called him an asshole twice today and, since he was one of the adults in the group, had had to send Laura off to the log by the pond to grind whatever plant Angel had brought back from one of her exploration trips.

"If you and Steven weren't acting the way you two are we wouldn't be so insulty." Theresa growled at him.

"Lets get something straight here woman," Peter said loudly, he turned at Theresa and glared at her intently. "not only am I a grown ass man I'm also a very concerned man with what's going on with Sue. Steven and I only went to the Gungans camp to see if they've give us some medicine so she could get better, that is all. Lets leave it at that."

"Yeah you guys went to the camp for medical supplies to help Sue when we have plenty of medicine from that pack that Gungan brought back," Theresa said back to him hotly. "you guys deliberatly disobeyed Angel and you both know it."

Standing up, Peter looked at Theresa angrily then walked away, they were near Angel's tent so he headed for that. He had something on his mind that he really wanted to tell her. Throwing the tent flaps back, he entered his leaders tent. Angel was standing with her back to her in the back of the tent, when she heard him she turned around, she was not wearing her blouse or her muscle shirt, she only had on her bra.

"Peter!" Angel exclaimed. "Haven't you ever heard of letting someone know you are coming in? Get out now!"

"No," Peter said, he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I have something to tell you."

"Say it after I finish dressing myself." Angel hissed at him.

"Nope, it's going to be told now." Peter said. "I'm tired of all the insults that all you women are throwing at me and Steven."

Angel looked at him strangely then turned around, she pulled her muscle shirt on then grabbed her blouse. Peter walked forward and wrapped his hand around her arm, she had a marking on her upper left arm, he remembered when he had walked into her cabin to see her putting her blouse on, he had asked her what it was and she had told him that it was a tattoo she had gotten one day in her late teens after a concert. It was an interesting tattoo, there were indents in her skin from the tattoo, all shapes no pictures. Before he could get a real good look at the tattoo Angel yanked her arm away.

"I don't mean to be so harsh towards you two," Angel said. "I'm sorry, as you know I am under a lot of stress and pressure here. I have to worry about all of you and keep all of you safe from harm and already we've lost three in our group and the young ones have fallen ill. We've got people, our people, firing at us and our neighbors a hundred and so yards from us are a bit hostile towards us. It's a lot on my plate not to mention that racing season starts up here in five months."

"Steven's right upset," Peter sighed, he understood the situation she was in well. "think you can go talk to him?"

"Yes I'll go now," Angel said. "I'll be less hostile towards you men... unless you guys totally deserve it that is."

Raising her arms high, she allowed the sleeves of her blouse to flow down, when the shirt was over her she buttoned the buttons then tucked it into her pants. When she was done she left the tent, Peter stood were he was with his mouth half agape. He stood there for a few minutes then, shaking his head, he walked to the journal she had on the chair and, although he wanted to open it he just ran his fingers over it. When he was done doing that he left the tent.

Her tent wasn't that far from Steven and Peter's so she walked slowly, thinking the whole time. To her she thought Steven was a nice man and despite his big size a gentle giant with a kind heart. He had played in a band for a year years then had quit and gone to school to become a teacher, when he had started teaching he had not cut his hair, he was one of few teachers that she knew of that had hair that reached to his shoulders. Stepping up to the tent, she took a deep sigh then drew the tent flaps back, ducking low she went inside the tent. Steven was lying on his bed with a music magazine in his hand. When he saw her he lowered the magazine, Angel could see that he was hiding another magazine inside.

"Catching a little porn aren't we." she said, she gave a slight smile and winked her eye at him.

"No uh... was just reading up on some music notes." Steven replied, a little nervous.

"Then what's this?" Angel said, she reached over and took the magazine that was behind the music magazine out. It was the the November edition of the Playboy series. Steven blushed when she held it up.

"Okay so I felt a little antsy." Steven said with a slight laugh.

"Better for you do be reading this than to be doing what Peter does." Angel replied.

"True that!" Steven said, he sat up straight on his bed. "I near had to clobber him last night."

"I heard, believe me, I think we all heard you saying for him to quit it all last night." Angel laughed.

Peter had been so loud last night in his activities that not only Angel but Andrea and Theresa had yelled out for him to shut up. Steven though had been the loudes to of them, she had heard him say to his tent companion "come on man", "will you stop" and "if you don't quit it I'm coming over there to chop it off" several times. She had tried so hard the night before not to laugh, she had had to shove her face into the pillow to keep herself from laughing.

"I'm sorry for calling you an idiot the other day." Angel apologized. "I'm under a lot of pressure and stress lately, didn't mean to let it get the best of me."

"Apology accepted, I know you're under a lot of stress, those Gungans have added more to it by their hostile ways not to mention you have the upcoming racing season to worry about. I understand fully."

"You're a very nice man Steven," Angel said, she sat herself down in front of him. "the last thing I want is to hurt you or anyone in this group."

"You're a good leader Angel," Steven said, he whispered her name when he said it. "I wouldn't want any other leader that you."

Angel couldn't control herself, she and Steven were good friends, had known each other for the last three years after he had pulled her off to the side after she had won a the Santa Anita Derby and asked for her autograph and phone number, she had given it to him and they had started a nice friendship that had been strong to this day. Three months before she had bought the ship and recruited all in her group she had sent him an autographed photo of Don Quixotol, Phantom and Chestnut, the son of Phantom and grandson of The Don, standing in the same pasture. He had been very grateful for it. Reaching her hand forward, she ran it through his brown hair, he looked at her shockingly but didn't stop her. She had ran her hand through his hair three times before they heard the yelling from outside.

"Where's your leader?" the Captain roared. "The Boss wishes to speak with her this instant!"

Exiting the tent with Steven right behind her, Angel looked at the Captain, he looked somewhat better, like he had had some sleep the night before, but still looked tired. Behind him stood Wilk, who also looked tired, and another Gungan, this one with medium green skin and medium length whiskers, they were ligth green in color and were shorter than the Captains, whose whiskers were light gray and longer.

"What you want?" Angel asked.

"The Boss wishes to speak with you now." the Captain said. "Follow me."

"You wish for me to come with Abi?" Steven asked, he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"No, stay in camp," Angel told him. "keep an eye out for hunters, you know what to do if any show up right?"

"Shoot on sight." Steven said.

This time when she entered the Gungan camp she wasn't met with curious Gungans, it was lunchtime and everyone was either at their tents eating or at the restaurant area of the camp. The Boss was sitting on the stairs, one leg crossing the other, and he had a young female at his elbow. When she saw her coming she ran up the stairs and disappeared in the tree that the Boss and his family were staying in. The Boss just stayed seated where he was.

"What's this I'm hearing about your camp being attacked two days ago?" the Boss asked.

"I was by the pond with one of the men in my group when five men came out of the bushes at us shooting," Angel explained. "all but one was killed."

"I hear that three in your group were injured is that true?" the Boss asked, he had a tired sound to his voice.

"Yes," Angel sighed. "the young ones were injured."

"Young?" the Boss said, he sat up straighter. "There are young ones in your camp?"

"Yes," Angel said, she took a half step forward then stopped when she felt the Captain wrap his hand around her arm tightly. "there's a nineteen, a seventeen and a sixteen year old in my group."

"Why are there young ones in your camp?" the Boss asked, he stood up slowly.

"They begged to come," Angel explained. "I have consent from their parents and guardians for them to be here."

"You say they were injured," the Boss said. "all three?"

"Yessir," Angel replied. "they all got sick soon after as well."

"What are their statuses now?" he asked. "They better or worse?"

"Two are up and well," Angel said, from one of her eyes she looked at the Captain who had a snarl look on his face. "the youngest is still ill."

Boss Nass walked towards her, stopped, then walked around her. When he stopped he placed one of his hands on his hip, the other looked to be up on his chin. The Captain had tightened his grip on her arm, for some reason Angel just felt he was doing so to show that he was stronger and more powerful, although his grip hurt she didn't say anything about it.

"I have a daughter that age," the Boss said, he sounded like he was speaking to himself. "have you got medicine for her?"

"We've got her temperature stablized," Angel started. "she's not eating or drinking anything though."

"How long?" the Boss asked.

"Two days Mister Nass..." she said.

"Boss Nass!" Captain Tarpals snarled at her, he tightened his grip on her arm more, it made her feel a little faint.

"Boss Nass I mean," Angel said, she reached her hand up and gently pushed the Captain, he raised his haillu then with a good swipe of his loose hand smacked her.

"Enough Captain," the Boss said sharply. "release her."

Captain Tarpals did as he was told but he didn't step back, he looked down at her and snarled. Boss Nass was still facing away from them, hearing a sound Angel looked up. The female that she had seen the day after they had set up camp was looking out from the door that led to her residence. Boss Nass turned around and when he saw her he made a "come forward" gesture.

"Come forth Laylie," Boss Nass said, he sounded very gentle. "it's safe."

"That's that human I was telling you about daddy," Laylie said, she hurried from the tree and down the stairs. "she seems right friendly."

"Their's no such thing as a friendly human," called a female Gungan that had taken Laylie's place behind the door. "they all pull you in then betray you."

"You may come down too Lizzi," Boss Nass said. "nothing to worry about as long as I'm here."

"Thanks but no thanks," the Gungan named Lizzi said. "I'm fine up here."

When Laylie tripped on the second to last step Angel couldn't help herself but go forward and catch her, when she placed her hands on the young Gungans arms to steady her the Gungan behind ran forward. He wrapped his arms around her waist and tightened them hard, she thought that she wouldn't be able to breathe.

"Captain, let her go!" Laylie exclaimed. "she was only helping me."

"Let her go," Boss Nass said, he stepped up to his daughter and placed his hand on her shoulder. "she meant no harm."

"Sorry sir but like your daughter said she can't be trusted as far as we can spit." the Captain said.

"I'm not as cruel as most humans say I am," the Boss said, he wrapped his arm around his daughters shoulders and held her tight to him. "I'm a protective and loving father and knowing that there is a young one her age that is ill sickens me. I will send a doctor to your camp here soon."

"That is very generous sir," Angel said, she was trying hard to hide her excitement. "thank you very much."

Angel went to shake Boss Nass' hand but was stopped when he raised his hand in a 'stop' fashion, so instead she bowed then turned around and headed back to her camp. Before she got very far the Captain shouted out at her, making her stop.

"Start keeping them men in your camp at bay," the Captain shouted at her. "I walk in your camp to find you or another female walk out of a man's tent there is going to be a problem."

Wanting to shake her head but forcing herself to stop, she started walking again. When she was in her camp she headed for Steven and Jonathan who were pulling logs up to a pit that they had dug for a fire, Johnathan wasn't wearing his hat so the top of his head shone brightly in the sun, it looked funny like a freshly layed chicken egg.

"Nass is sending a doctor to tend to Sue." Angel said to them.

"What's the occassion?" Steven asked. "I mean, he hasn't been nice to us since we've been in this camp why is he starting now?"

"She's sixteen," Angel replied. "he seemed right concerned about the age of the three girls."

"Why was he so concerned about the girls?" Johnathan asked.

"They're old enough to be his daughters," Angel replied, that was the only answer she had to his question. "I guess he felt that they are the real innocents in our group."

Boss Nass was as good as his word, at six in the evening a female doctor by the name of Lob Dizz came by, she was currently tending to Sue, Theresa hadn't been too happy about it, Andrea had been glad for the help. Miss Dizz, has Andrea had found out that the Gungan was single and relatively new in her profession, was constantly checking Sue's vitals, making sure her blood was flowing correctly and that her heart rate was as it should be, when she found that they were she sat down in the chair that Angel had left vacant only a few minutes before.

"The mature redhead," Lob said. "is she a true redhead or a false?"

"What do you mean?" Andrea asked, she didn't understand the question.

"Her hair," Lob said, she sat up straighter. "is it real or is it fake?"

"As real as the dirt under our feet Miss Dizz." Andrea said.

"Mr. Nass had a daughter with hair that shade of red," Lob sighed. "his wife plucked up right up from the river and took her in, they parented her until she disappeared at age fifteen."

"What happened to her?" Andrea asked, she felt a pang of sadness in her heart. "Did she run away or..."

"They don't know," Lob said, her eyes fell. "Mrs. Nass said that she had taken her older sister to the bathroom and had also gone to change the younger sisters diaper, when she returned she was gone."

"Did they ever find her or any trace of her?" Andrea asked, tears formed in her eyes. She would have not been the same if that would have happened to her with one of her children.

"No," Lob sighed. "Captain Tarpals searched far and wide, even Mr. Nass joined in the search. It tore both men up when it, the search, was called off."

"That must have put Mr. and Mrs. Nass in considerable pain," Andrea said. "I mean, if I would have lost a child of mine like that I would never be the same again."

"It did," Lob sighed, she reached her hand forward and placed it on Sue's arm gently. "Mrs. Nass was inconsolerable, the Captain searched for her for days after the search was called off, he had to be personally taken to the side by Mr. Nass. There was not a single man in Otoh Gunga that loved Mr. Nass' daughter more than the Captain."

Andrea was about to say something when the tent flaps opened and Angel came in, Lob took one look at the woman then stood up. She walked around Angel once then, with a nod, went back to her chair. Angel stood in front of the tent flaps for a few seconds then went and got another chair, she sat on the other side of Sue, her eyes never left Lob Dizz.

"How's she doing?" Angel asked after a while.

"Better," Lob replied, she tilted her head to the side, she was really trying to look at Angel's eyes. "she should be up and walking in a short twelve hours."

"Thank the Spirits!" Angel exclaimed, her eyes were still half closed, Andrea was wondering if she was doing that on purpose.

"Yes..." Lob said, she was really trying to see Angel's eyes now. "what color are your eyes ma'am?"

Now when Angel had entered camp she had emerald green eyes, her real eye color, but when she looked up, her eyes fully open, Andrea saw that she had icy blue eyes. That made her go 'huh' until she thought that maybe her leader had put on contact lenses, she knew where Wendy was and she knew that this was not Wendy as Wendy's hair was not as bright as Angel's and she wasn't as tall as Angel.

"If you had green eyes I'd be saying you were Mr. Nass' daughter." Lob sighed.

"I heard what you were telling Andrea," Angel said, she was still looking at Lob. "about Mr. Nass' daughter. Tragic story there."

"Yes," Lob replied. "tragic story."

A few minutes of silence came between Lob and Angel before Lob stood up and, brushing her hands against her apron, left the tent. She didn't say anything to Andrea, not a thing, it seemed like she had left in a hurry. Andrea allowed three minutes to pass then went forward and, grabbing Angel's arm, turned her around to facing her.

"Contacts?" Andrea asked.

"Yes," Angel replied. "contact lenses."

"I've not know you to wear contact lenses or any type of eye wear," Andrea said. "why are you wearing those?"

"Because." Angel said, she got up fast and left the tent leaving Andrea all alone with Sue. At first Andrea was shocked then she got the idea that Angel was hiding something from her. She shook it off after thinking how long she had known her friend. Maybe she had missed something, maybe Angel did wear contacts from time to her head, she sat down beside Sue. She wanted someone to be with the sixteen year old when she woke up so she wouldn't be scared.

Things hadn't gotten better in the camp a few days later, Sue had gotten better but they had been attacked twice more. Angel had had to use the few precious bullets that she had in her pistol to either injure or kill the men that had attempted to kill both Pam and Beth, Peter had gotten injured bad, a hunter had had a machete with him and had slashed his chest with it, he was in the medical tent being tended to by a, still frantic Pam, and Andrea. Jonathan had gotten injured as well, so had Steven, bt their injuries were far less severe than Peter's. They were now dangerously low on ammo for their weapons so Angel was now working feverishly to make arrows for her bow and Vinny, Steven and Jonathan were working on traps. Boss Nass had ordered that they move their camp further from his peoples camp the day after the second attack, they were now over a mile away from the Gungan camp.

"I've made over a hundred arrows now," Angel sighed. "I hope that is enough to handle our situation."

"We've made some traps," Vinny said over his shoulder, he had an open can of Chili in his hand and was eating what was inside. "the one we've nearly finished is our alarm."

Vinny pointed to all the cans on a string that went all the way around their camp, Angel didn't like the idea of them eating their precious low stock of food, but a lot of the cans that they had used had been empty for weeks, it seemed that they had eaten only six or so cans of Chili.

"I bet there's gonna be a lot of fartin' men in my camp tonight." Angel giggled.

"You bet, I'll probably be kicked out of my tent tonight." Steven laughed.

"Peter will be yelling shut yo ass up all night long." Jonathan joked.

"I'll probably kick all of you out of camp until your butt bombs are finished going off." Angel said.

They had a few holes dug around the camp as well, at first Vinny had asked if they were for bathroom uses but Steven, who had dug the holes himself, had told her that they were really to trip up anyone that came into their camp with ill purposes. He had covered the top of the holes with sticks and then left, when Jonathan had walked on one he fell and got trapped, Steven had had to throw him a rope to get him out, each hole was five feet down and at least four feet across. Placing her hand on Vinny's shoulder, she looked down at the little valley that they were next. Phantom was tied up in the valley, as were Sox, Melanie and the dapple mare Judith. Since they had moved she had had to make a choice of either camping near a rapidly moving river or the valley which was twenty feet away from the river, she had made the decision to remake camp by the valley as she didn't want to see anyone be dragged down the river and drowned.

"So far out," Steven sighed to himself. "that bastard Nass helped us with Sue then he kicked us out here and for what? Because we are being attacked by our own kind instead of them?"

"He's not a bastard," Angel shot at him. "remember he has to worry about the safety of..."

"His people and his family," Steven interrupted. "I know that. I just meant that after helping bring Sue back..."

"He didn't bring Sue back," Angel interrupt the bulky man. "Lob Dizz and Andrea did. Nass only sent Lob."

"Lets be glad he did that," Vinny said. "I'm not to liking to that guys attitude towards us. He treats us as if we're the problem when actually we're trying to help him."

Angel left the men to do their talking, she too had been annoyed that Boss Nass had made her move their camp but she wasn't being as vocal about it. She had ordered that all of the women and the three girls stay in the camp at all times aand to have an escort to wherever they went, she didn't want any of them to be kidnapped or raped. Leaving the men to continue their work on the traps, Angel when to the camp. She saw that Beth was heading her way with Pam who had an armload of clothes and dishes. When they reached her she reached out and grabbed some of the dishes.

"Let me help you with that." Angel said.

"Thank you!" Pam replied. "It's a lot and I'm afraid I can't carry it all and she can't carry a gun and half of this."

The river roared loudly, Angel hadn't even heard of a river roaring so loudly before, she compared it to fifty thousand humans cheering and crying for their horse during a race. The river wasn't just loud it ran so fast the water foamed, Beth took one look at it then headed for a more calm area for them to wash the dishes and clothes. They did so in quiet until they heard the sounds of a Kaadu, looking up sharply, Angel saw that it was the Captain with the Gungan with the medium length light green whiskers behind him.

"You're wanted at our camp." the Captain said.

"Let me guess," Pam growled at him. "that great waddling fool Nass wishes to speak to our leader."

The Captain looked at Pam savagely for a few seconds then dismounted, he walked to her and when he was within arms length he grabbed her up. Pam swung her free arm quickly, it collided with his chest, he didn't yell out in pain but she did, she held her hand to her chest.

"Dude your armor or whatever it is is hard!" she exclaimed.

"You speak of the Boss respectfully or not at all," the Captain said to her, he shook the arm he had a hold of. "Got me?"

"You're hurting me!" Pam yelled. "Abi help!"

Angel stood up and walked over to the Captain, there was an exposed part of his upper waist and she swung for it, when her hand punched into his ribs he let Pam's arm go, he turned on her and with a good left hand slapped her in the face, he slapped her with such force she turned around fully. Angel, not the person that liked abuse, turned around and kicked her leg up, surprisingly the Captain caught it.

"Enough!" the Captain yelled. "You're needed at our camp now so get up on that animal you ride and follow us."

"If the Boss wishes to see and speak to me he can do so by coming to my camp." Angel said to the Gungan. "I'm not leaving my camp."

"Then I'll arrest you and take you there by force." the Captain said to her sinisterly.

"Let him take you by force," Beth said, she half cocked her gun. "I'll blast his fuckin' balls off if he does."

"Enough Beth," Angel sighed. "conserve your ammunition for when you truly need it."

Captain Tarpals looked at the three girls in front of him, as much as the redhead interested him he hated her to death. He viewed her as a copycat of his long lost love and wished that he could knock her down a peg or two. The light yellow haired human he didn't much like either for the fact that she had a big mouth and the short brown haired lady with the tattoos he just plain didn't like her, she acted much too militant to him and that, he viewed, was ridiculous and disrespectful, in his eye only men should have the honor of being a soldier while the women should stay at home to raise the kids.

"I'll come to your camp," Angel said to the Captain. "but I won't get there until night falls."

"Be there before that," the Captain snarled at her. "the Boss does not like for his family time to be interrupted."

"Well I'm so so sorry," Pam said, she stood up beside Angel. "she has things to do at her camp and us to look out for if your precious Boss can't wait until then then he'll just have to come see her himself."

"If you do that you will have one angry Gungan on your hands," the Captain said to the two women. "if you're not there by six I'm coming back here with cuffs at the ready."

The Captain turned around and remounted his Kaadu, before he turned around he stared down angrily at Angel, with a hard kick he sent his Kaadu off. The Gungan that followed him stayed behind, Beth figured she'd better lower her weapon because he looked ready to grab it.

"And what's your story?" Angel asked the Gungan. "Begone!"

"You may look like my friends lost love," the Gungan said to her. "but you do not act it."

"I do not look like his lost love," Angel replied, he put imphasis on the 'lost love'. "and if I did I'd surely stay away from that ugly frog."

"Disrespect will get you no where with the Captain," the Gungan said. "nor will it get you anywhere with Boss Nass."

"I give respect when it is earned and that purple skinned guy has not earned it from me yet." Angel shot at the Gungan.

"What is your name fellow?" Beth asked the Gungan.

"Ceel," he replied, he side glanced at her. "General Tobler Ceel."

"Good now let me tell you something," Beth said. "Abigail is right, at this time we've been treated as the bad guys and we are sick of it so if you guys want any respect from her and from us shape up your attitiude or I swear I will kick some ass."

"Tough human will spend jail time if she keeps it up." Tobler said, he didn't move.

"This tough human is a former Private in the military so I think I can take you on." Beth said, she took a step closer.

General Ceel looked at Beth sharply, he lowered his pole at her and jabbed her once, when she jumped back he laughed, still laughing he turned his Kaadu and headed in the direction the Captain had gone. Angel and Pam walked up to Beth, Angel looked at Beth's arm and saw that it was fine, Pam was looking at the Gungan on Kaadu with a snarl look on her face.

"We have not seen the last of them two," Angel said. "lets get the dishes and clothes done then I'll collect Steven and go see what Nass wants."

Collecting Steven was the easy part, going to the Gungan camp without a problem was another. They had only gone half way when all of a sudden twelve men had come running and shooting at them. Angel had fired the last of her bullets from her guns, had killed three and injured two, Steven had been shot in the shoulder but had been fine enough to dismount and attack three men on his own boxer style. Since she had her bow and arrows she had grabbed them and started firing off, five well placed arrows killed four men, it took three more to kill another and another two to kill another, by the time the hunters had retreated there were only two left, Steven had pummeled one of his attackers into submission and had killed another through suffocation.

"You traitorous bitch!" the man yelled, his lip was torn and his face was badly beaten. "Why are you allying with the Gungans?"

"Who says we have allied with the Gungans?" Angel asked.

"You fire on us, your own kind, and you protect them, that is ally-ship to me." the man said.

"Maybe we feel that what you hunters are doing is wrong." Angel said to the man.

"Nathan will not be happy about this," the man yelled. "he will demand your pretty little head on a pike!"

"He'll have a hard tim putting my head on a pike," Angel said to the man. "you, on the other hand, will be having a nice little trip to Hell's Oven."

Angel carried more than a pistol and a bow and arrows on her, on her belt she had her spool of wire, a hatchet, a knife and a very long sword. She reached for the sword and with one, effortless swish and flick of her hand drew it and decapitiated the man. Steven took one look at the man then shook his shoulders, he had not known that Angel was that efficient with a sword.

"Mount up," Angel said to him. "we go to the Gungan camp now."

"Yes ma'am." Steven said, still shaken up.

The Gungans looked at them as if they were naked, Steven was covered in bruises and Angel was no better off, she had a bunch of cuts to her arms from where bullets had grazed her and when one of the men that had attacked them had jumped on her horse he had slashed at her with a knife, Steven's shoulder was bleeding horribly bad, it hurt him a lot but he was still riding proud, he didn't pay any attention to the Gungans that were talking about them. When they got up to the front of the camp they were stopped by General Ceel, the Captain was no where to be seen.

"Relationship abuse is frowned upon here." General Ceel said.

"Where's Nass?" Angel asked, she totally ignored General Ceel's sentence. "He wished to speak to me."

"He in the tree," the General said. "I will call for him after you have had time to clean up."

"I have no time for that," Angel said quickly. "we were attacked on the way here so please get him for me fast I wish to get back to my camp ASAP."

The General was taken a back by her words, as had Steven, he took one more look at them then ran up the steps that were behind the white stone face and entered the tree. When he came out the Captain, with Boss Nass following on his heels, followed. The Captain took one look at them then frowned greatly, Boss Nass went down the steps and stopped on the side of Angel's horse, Steven almost thought he detected a since of worry on his face.

"What happened?" Boss Nass asked.

"Since you've had us move camp we've been targeted by hunters," Angel replied, she did not look down. "this last attack was attack number three."

"It's come to my attention that by me making you move camp that I've put those younger members of your group in danger," Boss Nass said. "are they okay?"

"They're fine," Steven said to the stout Gungan. "they've been ordered to stay in camp and to not leave it under any circumstances."

"Very good," the Gungan said. "I'm glad to see you are not as ill demeanored as the other hu..."

"Is that all you wished to ask me of?" Angel interrupted the Gungan. "I have a group and camp to look out for if this is the only thing you wished to speak to me of I'll be really angry."

Boss Nass took a step back, he was silent for all of a minute then rushed forward and grabbed Angel, he tore her from her horse and slammed her to the ground. Steven dismounted quickly and tried to go to her but was stopped from behind by General Ceel who grabbed his arms and held them to his back tightly. Captain Tarpals was just standing on the top of the stairs, his arms were crossed over his chest and he seemed to of been enjoying what was going on.

"You have an attitude problem that needs fixing," Boss Nass said to Angel. "I suggest you fix it before something worse than one of your own kind attacking you happens. I asked you here to see how those young girls are yes, I am concerned about them or at least I was until you shot that down my throat. Now that you've disrespected me you are on your own. Stay away from my camp and keep all of your group away from my people. I will have you arrested if I hear or see any of you again. Understand me?"

"Crystal sir." Angel gasped, when she had been slammed to the ground she had lost all of her air.

"Good now go." Boss Nass said, he turned around and headed up the stairs, General Ceel released Steven who rushed to Angel's side. He picked her up gently and placed her on her horse, when he mounted his horse he grabbed both his horse's reins and Angel's horse's reins and, without turning around, cantered them off out of the Gungan camp.


	12. Chapter 12

"Screw them," Peter exclaimed when he found out what had happened earlier. "we've gotten along fine without them so far."

"If you ask me that Boss Nass is the one with the piss poor attitude." Beth hissed into her cup of water. "Only a jerk would pull and then throw our leader to the ground after she was attacked and has been injured."

"We're sitting out here eating shit because he can't have us dirtying it up near his camp," Vinny sniffed. "prejudice sumbitch."

The fire in front of them was big enough, it lit up their whole camp, when Angel and Steven had gotten back they had just gone to their tents and had not said a word, it had been through countless pestering through Peter to get Steven to say what had happened. He understood their anger, he had been shot twice now plus had had a machete taken to his chest for them Gungans and they were repaying him in this way. Reaching down, grabbing a small white flower, he threw it into the fire and watched it burn, he was close enough to the fire to feel it heat his skin.

"Steven said that they saw Jar Jar when they were headed out of the camp," Peter sighed. "he was being kept on the outside of their camp, if he went so much as put a foot inside their camp a soldier would rush out at him with one of those electronic poles."

"Poor guy," Beth said. "they even treat their own people like shit."

"He said he wasn't alone," Peter went on. "that there were at least five others with him, all men."

"So what they kick out rogue males or something?" Pam asked. "I don't think Jar Jar would do anything to hurt the camp or anyone or anything in their camp."

"Neither do I," Peter said. "he, Steven, said that they were just cruelly treating Jar Jar. Jar Jar looked like he was hungry, had dropped maybe ten or so pounds, and had a few wounds to him."

"And Jar Jar said that that he had heard from another 'banished' Gungan that the 'banished' were given temporary stay in the camp." Beth said, she rose two fingers when she said the word banished. "bet he wishes he would have stayed with us now."

"We sure as hell treated him better," Vinny spoke up. "hell we're human and we treated him as if he were one of us."

They knew about the attack on Steven and Angel, they had heard it and had taken position but no one had come at them, Steven had been wounded badly in his shoulder but had refused any treatment from Andrea when she asked if he needed help, he had simply gone into his tent and, from what Peter had heard shortly after, must have tore the projectile from his shoulder. When he had gone into their tent to get something he had seen that Steven had bandaged himself up, he had bandages on his arms and since he didn't have a shirt on his whole shoulder was wrapped up, he had had a bag of ice on it.

"Why don't we just get ready to go home?" Pam asked. "I mean, we have nothing here to prove, nothing to do except get shot and be brought into a fight that isn't our own. We have no purpose here."

"Honestly I think we do now," Peter said, he stood up and brushed his hands on the back of his pants. "we stay here and prove that we have the means of both taking care of ourselves and lending a hand when needed to them."

"Those Gungans don't want our help," Pam exclaimed. "so why should we continue to help them?"

"Persistance my dear Pamela," Peter said, he walked behind Pam and placed his hands on her shoulders. "we keep at it and they'll accept us. Just like one day you will accept me."

"Go away Peter!" Pam shouted. "I see where you're going but go away, your persistance will go unnoticed by me."

"Persistance," Peter said in her ear. "will be rewarded swee...tah...heart."

Peter tapped Pam on her shoulder then turned around, he headed right for his tent. When he disappeared inside it Pam stood up and brushed her shoulders off, Beth shook her head and gave a little chuckle. Peter really was a persistent fellow, she thought to herself, he had been pursuing Pam ever since she had walked on their boat at the dock.

"persistent little fuck," Beth said. "just won't take no for an answer."

"Do you have a stun gun on you?" Pam asked. "I mean, I really think I should have one on me."

"I might have one on me," Beth said, she leaned back some. "but I might need it."

"Can I use it for whenever Peter is near me?" Pam asked, she placed her hand on Beth's shoulder.

"I'll start carrying it whenever I'm out our tent," Beth replied. "if Peter starts it up with you and you feel threatened give me a signal and I'll toss it to you."

"I'll give a thumbs up," Pam sighed. "honestly Peter knows I'm married with kids and I know he is married and has a young daughter."

"Yes," Beth sighed, she knew all to well what Pam's husband was doing behind her back. "he knows you are married."

Standing up, Beth stretched her arms high then turned around and headed for her and Pam's tent. She had been in the military for a few years, had been in Iraq for three years before getting injured and sent home. One night on the town she had happened on Pam's husband sitting in his truck with a black haired lady in the seat next to him, she hadn't stayed around to see what ws going on, it was all over the town that Pam's husband was picking up girls and going to empty parking lots to engage in affairs. Peter's marriage life wasn't peaches and crème either, she knew that his wife had been kicking him out of their bed and forcing him to sleep on the couch, they were fighting a lot.

"Yes Peter I agree with you." Beth said, she sat on her cot and took her boots off. "We must remain persistant, we can't show a weakness."

It wasn't Peter poking his head into her tent to ask if she was awake that woke her up, at first she didn't know what it was then she heard it. The low calling for help and the high laughs and yodels. Grabbing her clothes and throwing them on, she ran to the front of her and Beth's tent, before she exited she turned around and looked at Beth, she was fast asleep. Not wanting to bother her tent companion she turned around and left the tent.

"Help!" she heard in the distance. "Help me!"

Walking from her camp, she headed in the direction she thought the call was coming from, the night was muggy and the ground made squishy noises under her feet when she walked, the moon was half out and the stars were all hidden. There was no noise other than the distance calling and the ground when she walked making it's squishy noises, it was eerily quiet all around her.

"Help me!" she heard again.

Taking one step was all it took, she felt a hand wrap around her ankle, the hand jerked hard to the right and she fell hard to the ground. Once she was on the ground a hand wrapped around her mouth tightly, she fought to scream but was permitted from doing so, she tried to tear the fingers from her mouth but they dug in more. Kicking out her legs, she tried to kick her attacker, it was no good as there must have been more than one near her because both of her legs were grabbed and held tightly by someone else.

"Women," one of her captors chuckled. "they come to everything."

Angel had heard just one yell, that was all, then everything went silent. She stayed on her cot for a three more minutes then sat up, she figured she should go on and check the tents to make sure everyone was accounted for. She normally slept with nothing on but her undergarments but as of the last few weeks had been sleeping with her jeans and muscle shirt on, grabbing her socks, she slid them on her feet then reached for her boots, slipping them on she stood up then exited her tent.

The night air was muggy, if she was wearing glasses they would have fogged up, the ground was wet with dew and made squishy sounds when she walked, no birds sang and no animals calls rang out in the forest, it made her senses go on high alert. Thinking that she should check the girls tent first she went to it, drawing the flaps of the tent back, she poked her head in. Sue, Wendy and Laura were all on their cots sleeping soundly. Nodding her head she went to Theresa and Andrea's tent, before she pulled the tent flaps back she thought she heard someone calling out, it made her stop and listen, when she didn't hear the call again she went back to what she was doing. Sticking her head in the tent she saw that both women were sleeping on their cots. When she pulled her head out from the tent she thought she heard something from Peter and Steven's tent so, instead of going to Beth and Pam's tent next she went and checked on them first. When she pulled the flaps back on their tent she saw that Steven was on his side, sleeping soundly, and Peter was practically out of his cot, the sheets were on the floor and his head was near touching the floor of the tent. Shaking her head she entered the tent and, with a lot of effort, pulled the man back into his cot. He rolled over to his side after she had done that, before she left their tent she checked Steven. He had a magazine under him but was otherwise perfectly fine.

"Why you men fall asleep with your magazines in bed with you I don't know," Angel whispered. "but at least you're both asleep and not keeping everyone awake with your manly activities."

Leaving their tent, Angel headed right for Beth and Pam's tent. The air had gotten very wet now, she could tell it was about to rain. When she got to their tent the first drops of rain fell, brushing her hair back she pulled the tent flaps back and entered the tent. What she saw dropped her stomach. Beth was on her cot, sleeping soundly, Pam's cot though was empty, the covers were pulled back. Blinking her eyes once, she rushed over to Beth and shook her awake.

"What?" Beth asked sleepily.

"Where's Pam?" Angel asked.

"Over on her cot." beth replied.

"Her cot is empty," Angel said, she pushed herself closer to her friend. "do you know where she could have gone."

"No," Beth said, she looked over at Pam's unoccupied cot. "could she of gone to the bathroom?"

"I saw not a soul on my way here," Angel replied. "I didn't hear anything either."

Angel didn't waste any time, she ran from the tent and lit up all of the torches that were around their camp, Beth didn't leave her and Pam's tent for a few minutes then when she did she was wearing full camo from head to foot. Steven had been woke up by Angel lighting up the torches, he lifted the tent flaps of his tent and peaked out.

"What's going on?" Steven asked.

"Pam's missing!" Angel exclaimed. "Get your clothes on and help me and Beth find her, leave Peter to watch the others."

"The hell I'll stay here," Peter said, he rushed out of the tent. "wherever my two ladies go I go. Steven you watch the camp I'm going to find Pam."

Spanning out to about ten feet from one another, Beth, Angel and Peter looked for their missing friend. Peter was frantically looking for her, he was turning over logs and had pulled up weeds and small bushes, Beth was looking under everything that she could. Angel, though, had a knife to the ground and was listening to here if there were additional footsteps than the ones given off by Beth and Peter. There were not so she stood up and continued on, she shimmied up a tree and looked down, at first she saw nothing then, squinting her eyes, she saw the pink shirt her friend was wearing. At first she wanted to yell 'she's there' but then when she saw the two figures kneeled down in front of her friend she stopped. Grabbing her sword, she swung from the tree she was on to the one next to it, she repeated that for five trees until she was behind the men that had captured her friend. Slowly climbing down from the tree, her nails dug deep into the trunk, she headed for the first of the two men.

"When that man steps over that log grab him," one of the men said. "tie him up quick then go for the brunette."

"And the redhead?" the other man asked.

"When you see her catch her," the first man said. "Nathan wants her caught but not harmed."

Before the other man could speak Angel jumped from the tree, with a quick swipe of her arm she sliced his head in two. When the man who had spoken first turned around and saw what she had done to his companion he opened fire, two bullets hit her arm. Throwing the sword from one hand to the other, Angel sliced the man's hand off then finished him off by slashing the sword down his middle, bisecting him perfectly.

"Ovuh... here." Angel gasped, she dropped her sword and grabbed her arm.

Peter and Beth rushed over, Beth quickly severed the ropes that bound her friend while Peter went to Angel. He grabbed her arm gently and looked at it, there were two holes from where the bullets had entered right above the elbow, he wasn't sure if her arm was broken but he sure knew that the wound was bleeding a lot. He tried to pick Angel up but she waved her hand and told him to leave her and to tend Pam, he did so with some hesitation.

"Search the men," Angel said through gritted teeth. "take their weapons and ammunition. We'll need it."

Peter didn't do as she said, Beth did though. She looked through one man's pockets and found two Ruger LC9th 9MM pistols, a box of ammunition for them, three knives and she took the man's Remington 700th SPS DM Combo along with the ammunition she found on the small hill in front of her. On the other man she found a Beretta Nano 9MM pistol and a Beretta PX4 Storm Full Size pistol, she also found ammunition for both pistols on the man, the man didn't have any knives on him, before she left she took the Browning X-Bolt Hunter rifle and its ammunition that she found in the man's back pocket. When she finished collecting the weapons and ammo that the two men had she took off after her friends, Peter was carrying Pam who was historical and Angel was walking beside them, she looked to be in considerable pain.

"Good weapons those two men had," Angel said after a while, she was in the medical tent being checked over by Andrea. "they should get us by for a few days."

"I think we should do exactly what we did tonight," Beth said, although she was unhurt she was sitting on a cot in the tent. "after we kill an offender we should take his weapons."

So that's what they started doing for the next week, Angel would lead them on patrols and anyone that would attack them they would fire on and afterwards they would take their weapons and ammunition. They had picked up on quite a bit of weapons, Beretta's, Savage American Classics, a few A. Uberti Silverboys, a Stoeger Longfowler Over and Under, Beth had found a Tapco AR Rifle on one man and was claiming it as her favorite weapon while Peter was claiming a A. Uberti Silverboy, Steven claimed a Savage American Classic while Angel was using heavily, amongst all her other weapons, one of the Stoeger Longfowler Over and Under.

"Now maybe if we could find some of their camps and get some food," Pam said, she had a Beretta on her lap. "we'd be even better."

"We could go out and do some hunting," Peter said over his shoulder. "always something out there to keep our bellies full."

"No," Pam sighed. "I have more of a stomach for something fruity now."

"If we wouldn't have been kicked out of our original camp we would have some fruit stuff to eat." Vinny said. "I mean, there were plenty of berry bushes around that pond."

"Not to mention sweet grass." Andrea said. "Best tasting grass I've ever eaten!"

It was early morning, the fire was still going but was starting to lower, the birds that were flying over it would swoop low, they acted as if they were curious about the fire. Vinny had catalogued every animal that they had seen and had been sharing every page in his note-book with Andrea, they were a good team when it came to exploring the flora and fauna. The day before they had found and catalogued a unique animal that looked like a cross between a Opposum and a Sloth with the face of an Aye-aye, the creature they had caught had been predominantly gray in color with four rows of brown dots on its back, it only had four fingers on its hands that sprouted long claws, the back feet had short nails, the eyes had been brown-red in color and it had had a tuft of blackish brown fur on top of its head, the tail on the animal had been long and strong, it had wrapped it all around Andrea's arm when she had caught it. Steven had their last can of Chili in his hand, Vinny and Peter were staring at it hungrily. When Steven noticed he handed it to them, Peter only got four bites in before Vinny grabbed it. Before Vinny could finish the food in the can they were the vocal drone of a Kaadu, near everyone in the camp sighed out of frustration. None of them wanted any problems and they were sure that there were going to be some now that a Gungan was riding towards them.

"And to my left is the group of humans that claim to be our friends," they heard the Gungan on Kaadu-back say. "we don't trust them though because they are human and humans cannot be trusted."

"Captain Tarpals?" Peter whispered to Beth, he nodded slightly behind him.

"Don't know and don't care." Beth whispered back. "I just want him to leave."

"Of these humans the one you have to watch out for is the tall redhead," the Gungan was saying. "and the fluffy brown haired man."

"Don't pay any attention to him Pete," Pam said, she reached over and touched his arm when she saw him tense up some. "he's just trying to start trouble."

"He's going to get trouble if he doesn't get away from here!" Peter said through gritted teeth.

"The one with the fluffy brown hair is categorized as being a pervert," the Gungan said, for some reason Pam felt that he was staring a hole into Peter's back. "so Fassa watch yourself. The big man beside him is also categorized as a pervert. Keep your eyes on both of them."

Pam's eyes grew wide, Peter could be perverted at times but Steven was more in control of himself. Steven had become visibly upset over being called a pervert, he was fidgeting in his seat and was mumbling to himself. Before the Gungan could say anything more Angel walked out from her tent, the tent flap flapped in the gust of wind and Angel's hair blew to the side. Pam was about to stand up when Angel spoke.

"Pam seat yourself," she ordered. "what are you guys doing here?"

"Teaching a class," the Gungan replied. "nothing more."

"You're disturbing the peace in my camp," Angel said, she walked forward. "begone Ceel."

"That's General Ceel to you," General Ceel growled down at her. "and I happen to have orders to come here."

"Tell your superior that I said that you are not to come near my camp," Angel said back, she was three steps from the Gungan. "we need our rest or we won't be able to put up a fight to save you and your peoples asses."

There was a group of five Gungans behind General Ceel's Kaadu, the tall female in front was the one that caught Angel's attention our of all of them. She had light orange eyes and light green skin, her features were light and gentle, her arms were tough and strong looking. She was wearing the same uniform as the General except that her head gear wasn't light brown but green. Angel guessed that of the five in her group she ranked a little higher.

"We have noticed that attacks on us have slowed up," the General said to her. "I suppose you humans are the ones responsible for that."

"We've been attacked, had one of us kidnapped, we've had injured and we've attacked hunters ourselves." Angel said to the General.

"What is your purpose here?" Steven asked, he stepped up beside Angel.

"I already told you," the General said, he did not look at Steven. "I am teaching a class."

"Teach your class elsewhere," Steven ordered. "thanks to you people we are sitting ducks out here."

"Still hostile I see," the General said, he looked down at Steven and snarled. "I'll be sure to tell the Captain to add you to the list of Castrations."

"Steven don't reply to that!" Pam exclaimed. "They wouldn't dare harm any of us."

"You know you guys are really inconsiderate," Peter said, he too walked up beside Angel. "we're out here attracting the attention of the people that attack your people and you disrespect us by making us a pawn in your daily class."

"I guess we won't be invited for supper then." the General said, he turned his Kaadu around. "We leave now."

Angel huffed at the General behind his back, the Gungan in front of the others in his class rushed forward and stood up to her, looking down at her fiercely. Angel didn't flinch, she didn't move, she didn't even bat an eye, she just stood there and stared back. Less than a minute passed before the female Gungan turned around, the General had stopped his group and was looking back at her, he was silent. The Gungan took three steps forward then stopped, she stayed that way for another minute before she turned back around and stared, once again, at Angel.

"My uncle was talking about you last night," she said. "he's thinking about letting you come back to your original camp."

"Thanks by no thanks," Angel said to the Gungan. "we are fairing well here."

"Really?" the Gungan with the green head gear asked. "You're being attacked and you say you're fairing well? You lot of humans are odd."

"At least our lot stays together," Steven spoke, he had a hint of annoyance in his voice. "we don't throw a member out for something that is stupid."

"Like clumsiness," Peter said. "I've never known a society that banishes a member because of clumsiness."

"Neither had I buddy." Steven said

"You humans are extremely disrespectful!" the Gungan yelled. "I'll be sure to let my uncle know how you acted when we came here. He'll be so mad at you and will probably come here to set things straight real quick!"

"We look forward to his visit," Steven said, he turned around and walked away. "maybe then we'll come to an understanding."

It got calmer for a while after the group of Gungans left them, Steven calmed down considerably and so did Peter, Angel though was another story. She had grabbed one of their rifles and had gone off on Phantom for a hunt, Beth had tried to go with her but she had been told no so they were all just sitting on the logs around a now dead fire pit waiting for her to bring some sort of food to the camp.

"Think Nass will come to our camp?" Pam asked.

"Probably won't," Steven said. "he's too scared to come out this far."

"Personally I hope he does," Beth said, she had her Tapco AR rifle on her lap. "that way he can see for himself the hardships we are dealing with."

Four hours later, the sun was up high in the sky and everyone was tired and sweaty, Angel hadn't returned yet and that worried everyone, especially Peter and Steven. Both men were about ready to tack up a horse and go find her when, from the bushes, rode an impressively large animal. The animal had Clydesdale-like legs only without the feathers, that was all the resemblance it had of a horse though as the rest looked like an extinct species of Rhinoceros, it had a long neck with a long head attached, the face looked to be in a great frown. Riding on the animal, in a big saddle, was Boss Nass.

"Seems that I need to speak to you humans personally." the Gungan said, he sounded none to pleased.


End file.
